How to do server-side validation using Jqgrid?

Question

I'm using jqgrid to display a list of sites and I want to do some server side validation when a site is added or edited. (Form editing rather than inline. Validation needs to be server side for various reasons I won't go into.)

I thought the best way would be to check the data via an ajax request when the beforeSubmit event is triggered. However this only seems to work when I'm editing an existing row in the grid - the function isn't called when I add a new row.

Have I got my beforeSubmit in the wrong place?

Thanks for your help.

    $("#sites-grid").jqGrid({
        url:'/json/sites',
        datatype: "json",
        mtype: 'GET',         
        colNames:['Code', 'Name', 'Area', 'Cluster', 'Date Live', 'Status', 'Lat', 'Lng'],
        colModel :[ 
          {name:'code', index:'code', width:80, align:'left', editable:true}, 
          {name:'name', index:'name', width:250, align:'left', editrules:{required:true}, editable:true}, 
          {name:'area', index:'area', width:60, align:'left', editable:true}, 
          {name:'cluster_id', index:'cluster_id', width:80, align:'right', editrules:{required:true, integer:true}, editable:true, edittype:"select", editoptions:{value:"<?php echo $cluster_options; ?>"}}, 
          {name:'estimated_live_date', index:'estimated_live_date', width:120, align:'left', editable:true, editrules:{required:true}, edittype:"select", editoptions:{value:"<?php echo $this->month_options; ?>"}}, 
          {name:'status', index:'status', width:80, align:'left', editable:true, edittype:"select", editoptions:{value:"Live:Live;Plan:Plan;"}}, 
          {name:'lat', index:'lat', width:140, align:'right', editrules:{required:true}, editable:true}, 
          {name:'lng', index:'lng', width:140, align:'right', editrules:{required:true}, editable:true}, 
        ],
        height: '300',
        pager: '#pager-sites',
        rowNum:30,
        rowList:[10,30,90],
        sortname: 'cluster_id',
        sortorder: 'desc',
        viewrecords: true,
        multiselect: false,
        caption: 'Sites',
        editurl: '/json/sites'
     });

    $("#sites-grid").jqGrid('navGrid','#pager-sites',{edit:true,add:true,del:true, beforeSubmit : function(postdata, formid) { 
        $.ajax({
            url      : 'json/validate-site/', 
            data     : postdata,
            dataType : 'json',
            type     : 'post',
            success  : function(data) { 
                alert(data.message);
                return[data.result, data.message];
            }
        });
    }});

Answer 1

If you want to use beforeSubmit event, you should use it on the other place (see http://www.trirand.com/jqgridwiki/doku.php?id=wiki:navigator ):

$("#sites-grid").jqGrid('navGrid','#pager-sites',{/**/},
    {beforeSubmit : function(postdata, formid) { /**/ }} // edit parameters
    );

I have the same opintion as Botondus (see comment), that you try to use beforeSubmit in a wrong way. Server which receive the edit data request (request to save modified data) must not save it. It can of cause validate the data and answer with HTTP error instead of 200 OK. To decode error response and prepare an error message use can use errorTextFormat event (see http://www.trirand.com/jqgridwiki/doku.php?id=wiki:form_editing#events ).