how to make label visible/invisible?

Question

I have these date and time fields, and I want to set a javascript validation for the time.

If the format is invalid, it should make the label visible, else it should be invisible.

This is the code I have so far.

  <td nowrap="nowrap" align="left">
            <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                <tr>
                    <td align="right" nowrap="nowrap">
                        <span id="startDateLabel">Start date/time: </span>
                        <input id="startDateStr" name="startDateStr" size="8" onchange="if (!formatDate(this,'USA')) {this.value = '';}" />
                        <button id="startDateCalendarTrigger">...</button>
                        <input id="startDateTime" type="text" size="8" name="startTime" value="12:00 AM" onchange="validateHHMM(this.value);"/>
                        <label id="startTimeLabel" visible="false">Time must be entered in the format HH:MM AM/PM</label>
                        <BR>
                        <span id="endDateLabel">End date/time: </span>
                        <input id="endDateStr" name="endDateStr" size="8" onchange="if (!formatDate(this,'USA')) {this.value = '';}" />
                        <button id="endDateCalendarTrigger">...</button>
                        <input id="endDateTime" type="text" size="8" name="endTime" value="12:00 AM" onchange="validateHHMM2(this.value);"/>
                        <label id="endTimeLabel" visible="false">Time must be entered in the format HH:MM AM/PM</label>
                    </td>
                </tr>
            </table>
        </td>

The problem is the label shows up when loaded irrespective of what I set as visible. I tried visibility = "hidden" and it still shows up.

Here is the validation part:

    <script>
function validateHHMM(inputField) {
    var isValid = /^(0?[1-9]|1[012])(:[0-5]\d) [APap][mM]$/.test(inputField.value);

    if (isValid) {
        document.getElementById("startTimeLabel").style.visibility = "hidden";
    }else {
        document.getElementById("startTimeLabel").style.visibility = "visible";
    }

    return isValid;
}
function validateHHMM2(inputField) {
    var isValid = /^(0?[1-9]|1[012])(:[0-5]\d) [APap][mM]$/.test(inputField.value);

    if (isValid) {
        document.getElementById("endTimeLabel").style.visibility = "hidden";
    }else {
        document.getElementById("endTimeLabel").style.visibility = "visible";
    }

    return isValid;
}
 </script>

So, how should I go about this? Google shows up different validation methods but not how to hide/show labels

Answer 1

You are looking for display:

document.getElementById("endTimeLabel").style.display = 'none';
document.getElementById("endTimeLabel").style.display = 'block';

Edit: You could also easily reuse your validation function.

HTML:

<span id="startDateLabel">Start date/time: </span>
<input id="startDateStr" name="startDateStr" size="8" onchange="if (!formatDate(this,'USA')) {this.value = '';}" />
<button id="startDateCalendarTrigger">...</button>
<input id="startDateTime" type="text" size="8" name="startTime" value="12:00 AM" onchange="validateHHMM(this.value, 'startTimeLabel');"/>
<label id="startTimeLabel" class="errorMsg">Time must be entered in the format HH:MM AM/PM</label><br />

<span id="endDateLabel">End date/time: </span>
<input id="endDateStr" name="endDateStr" size="8" onchange="if (!formatDate(this,'USA')) {this.value = '';}" />
<button id="endDateCalendarTrigger">...</button>

<input id="endDateTime" type="text" size="8" name="endTime" value="12:00 AM" onchange="validateHHMM(this.value, 'endTimeLabel');"/>
<label id="endTimeLabel" class="errorMsg">Time must be entered in the format HH:MM AM/PM</label>

Javascript:

function validateHHMM(value, message) {
    var isValid = /^(0?[1-9]|1[012])(:[0-5]\d) [APap][mM]$/.test(value);

    if (isValid) {
        document.getElementById(message).style.display = "none";
    }else {
        document.getElementById(message).style.display= "inline";
    }

    return isValid;
}

Live DEMO

Answer 2

Change visible="false" to style="visibility:hidden" on your tags..

---

or better use a class to show/hide the labels..

.hidden{
   visibility:hidden;
}

then on your labels add class="hidden"

and with your script remove the class

document.getElementById("endTimeLabel").className = 'hidden'; // to hide

and

document.getElementById("endTimeLabel").className = ''; // to show