jquery validate - valid if hidden field has a value

Question

I need to validate a field based on the value of a hidden field. I tried this custom rule:

jQuery.validator.addMethod("cityselected", function() {
    if ($('#featureID').val() == "") return false;
    else return true;
});

cityselect: {
    required: true,
    cityselected: true
},

featureID is a hidden input which I need to check has a value. This doesnt seem to work though. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Add the class "required" to the hidden input.

Answer 2

If your plugin version is greater than 1.9, you'll have to explicitly add hidden to the validation process, like that when you initialize the plugin :

$("#form").validate({
  // Do not ignore hidden fields
  ignore: []
});