How to set HTML5 required attribute in Javascript?
And the jquery version:
$('input').attr('required', true)
$('input').attr('required', false)
I know it's beyond the question, but maybe someone will find this helpful :)
What matters isn't the attribute but the property, and its value is a boolean.
You can set it using
document.getElementById("edName").required = true;
Short version
element.setAttribute("required", ""); //turns required on
element.required = true; //turns required on through reflected attribute
jQuery(element).attr('required', ''); //turns required on
$("#elementId").attr('required', ''); //turns required on
element.removeAttribute("required"); //turns required off
element.required = false; //turns required off through reflected attribute
jQuery(element).removeAttr('required'); //turns required off
$("#elementId").removeAttr('required'); //turns required off
if (edName.hasAttribute("required")) { } //check if required
if (edName.required) { } //check if required using reflected attribute
Long Version
Once T.J. Crowder managed to point out reflected properties, i learned that following syntax is wrong:
element.attributes["name"] = value; //bad! Overwrites the HtmlAttribute object
element.attributes.name = value; //bad! Overwrites the HtmlAttribute object
value = element.attributes.name; //bad! Returns the HtmlAttribute object, not its value
value = element.attributes["name"]; //bad! Returns the HtmlAttribute object, not its value
You must go through element.getAttribute and element.setAttribute:
element.getAttribute("foo"); //correct
element.setAttribute("foo", "test"); //correct
This is because the attribute actually contains a special HtmlAttribute object:
element.attributes["foo"]; //returns HtmlAttribute object, not the value of the attribute
element.attributes.foo; //returns HtmlAttribute object, not the value of the attribute
By setting an attribute value to "true", you are mistakenly setting it to a String object, rather than the HtmlAttribute object it requires:
element.attributes["foo"] = "true"; //error because "true" is not a HtmlAttribute object
element.setAttribute("foo", "true"); //error because "true" is not an HtmlAttribute object
Conceptually the correct idea (expressed in a typed language), is:
HtmlAttribute attribute = new HtmlAttribute();
attribute.value = "";
element.attributes["required"] = attribute;
This is why:
getAttribute(name)setAttribute(name, value)
exist. They do the work on assigning the value to the HtmlAttribute object inside.
On top of this, some attribute are reflected. This means that you can access them more nicely from Javascript:
//Set the required attribute
//element.setAttribute("required", "");
element.required = true;
//Check the attribute
//if (element.getAttribute("required")) {...}
if (element.required) {...}
//Remove the required attribute
//element.removeAttribute("required");
element.required = false;
What you don't want to do is mistakenly use the .attributes collection:
element.attributes.required = true; //WRONG!
if (element.attributes.required) {...} //WRONG!
element.attributes.required = false; //WRONG!
Testing Cases
This led to testing around the use of a required attribute, comparing the values returned through the attribute, and the reflected property
document.getElementById("name").required;
document.getElementById("name").getAttribute("required");
with results:
HTML .required .getAttribute("required")
========================== =============== =========================
<input> false (Boolean) null (Object)
<input required> true (Boolean) "" (String)
<input required=""> true (Boolean) "" (String)
<input required="required"> true (Boolean) "required" (String)
<input required="true"> true (Boolean) "true" (String)
<input required="false"> true (Boolean) "false" (String)
<input required="0"> true (Boolean) "0" (String)
Trying to access the .attributes collection directly is wrong. It returns the object that represents the DOM attribute:
edName.attributes["required"] => [object Attr]
edName.attributes.required => [object Attr]
This explains why you should never talk to the .attributes collect directly. You're not manipulating the values of the attributes, but the objects that represent the attributes themselves.
How to set required?
What's the correct way to set required on an attribute? You have two choices, either the reflected property, or through correctly setting the attribute:
element.setAttribute("required", ""); //Correct
edName.required = true; //Correct
Strictly speaking, any other value will "set" the attribute. But the definition of Boolean attributes dictate that it should only be set to the empty string "" to indicate true. The following methods all work to set the required Boolean attribute,
but do not use them:
element.setAttribute("required", "required"); //valid, but not preferred
element.setAttribute("required", "foo"); //works, but silly
element.setAttribute("required", "true"); //Works, but don't do it, because:
element.setAttribute("required", "false"); //also sets required boolean to true
element.setAttribute("required", false); //also sets required boolean to true
element.setAttribute("required", 0); //also sets required boolean to true
We already learned that trying to set the attribute directly is wrong:
edName.attributes["required"] = true; //wrong
edName.attributes["required"] = ""; //wrong
edName.attributes["required"] = "required"; //wrong
edName.attributes.required = true; //wrong
edName.attributes.required = ""; //wrong
edName.attributes.required = "required"; //wrong
How to clear required?
The trick when trying to remove the required attribute is that it's easy to accidentally turn it on:
edName.removeAttribute("required"); //Correct
edName.required = false; //Correct
With the invalid ways:
edName.setAttribute("required", null); //WRONG! Actually turns required on!
edName.setAttribute("required", ""); //WRONG! Actually turns required on!
edName.setAttribute("required", "false"); //WRONG! Actually turns required on!
edName.setAttribute("required", false); //WRONG! Actually turns required on!
edName.setAttribute("required", 0); //WRONG! Actually turns required on!
When using the reflected .required property, you can also use any "falsey" values to turn it off, and truthy values to turn it on. But just stick to true and false for clarity.
How to check for required?
Check for the presence of the attribute through the .hasAttribute("required") method:
if (edName.hasAttribute("required"))
{
}
You can also check it through the Boolean reflected .required property:
if (edName.required)
{
}
required is a reflected property (like id, name, type, and such), so:
element.required = true;
...where element is the actual input DOM element, e.g.:
document.getElementById("edName").required = true;
(Just for completeness.)
Re:
Then the attribute's value is not the empty string, nor the canonical name of the attribute:
edName.attributes.required = [object Attr]
That's because required in that code is an attribute object, not a string; attributes is a NamedNodeMap whose values are Attr objects. To get the value of one of them, you'd look at its value property. But for a boolean attribute, the value isn't relevant; the attribute is either present in the map (true) or not present (false).
So if required weren't reflected, you'd set it by adding the attribute:
element.setAttribute("required", "");
...which is the equivalent of element.required = true. You'd clear it by removing it entirely:
element.removeAttribute("required");
...which is the equivalent of element.required = false.
But we don't have to do that with required, since it's reflected.