Joomla! Documentation™

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After submitting a form, you should validate your data. In Joomla this can be done via the JForm validate method (normally called in the controller via the model JModelForm).

Unlike client-side validation, the validation uses html attributes to do its validation. There is the attribute required ("true" or "required") which makes a field required and the attribute validate with a joomla or custom rule value.

E.g. field in a joomla form xml

<field name="email" type="text" class="inputbox" description="Fill in your E-mail" label="E-mail" required="true" validate="email" size="30" />

Validation rules

Rule	Description	Availability
boolean	Accepts only the values '0', '1', 'true' or 'false' (case-insensitive).	and newer
color	Accepts only empty values (converted to '#000000') and strings in the form '#RGB' or '#RRGGBB' where R, G, and B are hex values.	and newer
email	Accepts an email address satisfies a basic syntax check in the pattern of "x@y.zz", with no invalid characters.	and newer
equals	Requires the value to be the same as that held in the field named "field", eg: <input type="text" name="email_check" validate="equals" field="email" />	and newer
options	Requires the value entered be one of the options in an element of type="list": that is, that the element is a select list.	and newer
rules	Todo	and newer
tel	Requires the value to be a Telephone number complying with the standards of nanpa, ITU-T T-REC-E.164 or ietf rfc4933.	and newer
url	Validates that the value is a URL with a valid scheme (which can be restricted by the optional comma-separated field 'scheme'), and passes a basic syntax check. eg: <input type="text" name="link" validate="url" scheme="http,https,mailto" />	and newer
username	Validates that the value does NOT appear as a username on the system; that is, that it is a valid new username. Does not syntax check it as a valid name.	and newer

You can find the specific implementation of these rules in \libraries\joomla\form\form.php - validation begins in the function validate(), moves to validateField(), which then calls the respective validation functions of \libraries\joomla\form\rules\*.php

Server- or Client-side validation?

Form validation