Limit field responses. Reference/coupon code validation

Hello,
I have a form where people are required to enter in a reference/coupon code.
Currently I use a text box for this. But how it's set up now, people can type in any jumble of text and the form still goes through.

I want to check the entry against my list of "official" reference codes. And if they do not use one of the official codes I don't want the form to go through. I would also display a quick message stating "this is not a valid code" if it is not a code from the list. I don't want them to choose the items from a drop down list, since I don't want to visibly publish all the codes for everyone to see.

How can I do this?

If it is a standard feature of Chrnoforms and I missed it I apologize.
I've done some searching for "coupon" and "reference" on this forum and did not find the answer.

The form can be seen at http://greendriveexpo.com/greendriveexpocoupon

O.k. I found this referenced on another chronoforms thread

var f14 = new LiveValidation('f14');
f14.add( Validate.Inclusion, { within: [ 'cow' , 'pigeon', 'giraffe' ] } );

It looks like I could use this code... if only I knew where and how to implement it. :-)

For now I
1) went to the tab labeled "form code"
2) clicked on the little +/- next to "Form JavaScript:" in the "Main onLoad/View Code" area.
3) pasted the above code in that area. (I changed f14 to the variable name I am checking: text_11)
So it looks like this

var text_11 = new LiveValidation('text_11');
text_11.add( Validate.Inclusion, { within: [ 'sept123' , 'oct416', 'nov223' ]} );

4) clicked on save at the top of the form.

But the form does not seem to be doing the validation.

Do I also need to go to the "Validation" tab and change the "Enable Validation" to "Yes"?
I tried that, but it did not seem to make a difference either.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Hi ericbecky ,

There are two main ways to do this. The simple one is to use the ChronoForms Serverside validation box to check the result against an approved list (presumably in a database table). The more complicated one is to use Ajax in the form to do a real-time lookup when the code is entered (that's not too difficult either). You'd still need the server-side check for backup so I'd be inclined to code that first and then add the Ajax as a later 'improvement'.

Bob

Due to a time crunch I ended up hiring an outside person to code it for $50.
He was my request.
http://www.freelancer.com/projects/PHP-Joomla/PHP-server-side-verification-script.html

He made a database table named "jvredirect" that can be directly accessed via the php database back end of the website.
Additionally, a more user friendly way to access it is via a link he made on the Joomla "Components" dropdown menu.

On the validation tab of Chronoform form he did a few things.
In the ServerSide Validation section he set "Enable Server Side Validation" to "Yes".
Then in the Server Side validation Code box he entered the following:

<?php
$db =& JFactory::getDBO();
$id=JRequest::getString('code');
$id=strtolower ($id);
$id=$db->getEscaped( $id );
$query = "SELECT * FROM #__jvredirect where name='".$id."'";
$db->setQuery( $query);
$row = $db->loadObjectList();
if ($db->getErrorNum()||count($row)==0) {

return 'That is not a valid Discount Code. Please check your code and enter it again.' ;
}

?>

If a person enters a code that does not match one from the list they get the error message.

On the jvredirect table has 3 fields
ID (This is an internal auto-increment that makes a unique id#
Code (This is the text that is checked against)
Description (This is a description so I remember what the code means for tracking purposes)

I added this post as a reference for myself.

Thanks for sharing!🙂

Regards,
Max

When I get around to it, I should really add some more code so that I can activate or inactivate the code.
That way I could use a code for an event, and then later turn it off after the event was over.
Or even better, but much more complex would be to add a timeframe in which the code was active.

That should not be very complex, we are trying continuously to improve Chronoforms in order to give users more abilities and make complicated issues much easier🙂