jQuery form validation on button click

Solution 1:

Within your click handler, the mistake is the .validate() method; it only initializes the plugin, it does not validate the form.

To eliminate the need to have a submit button within the form, use .valid() to trigger a validation check...

$('#btn').on('click', function() {
    $("#form1").valid();
});

jsFiddle Demo

.validate() - to initialize the plugin (with options) once on DOM ready.

.valid() - to check validation state (boolean value) or to trigger a validation test on the form at any time.

Otherwise, if you had a type="submit" button within the form container, you would not need a special click handler and the .valid() method, as the plugin would capture that automatically.

Demo without click handler

EDIT:

You also have two issues within your HTML...

<input id="field1" type="text" class="required">

• You don't need class="required" when declaring rules within .validate(). It's redundant and superfluous.

• The name attribute is missing. Rules are declared within .validate() by their name. The plugin depends upon unique name attributes to keep track of the inputs.

Should be...

<input name="field1" id="field1" type="text" />

Solution 2:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $("#form1").validate({
        rules: {
            field1: "required"
        },
        messages: {
            field1: "Please specify your name"
        }
    })
});

<form id="form1" name="form1">
     Field 1: <input id="field1" type="text" class="required">
    <input id="btn" type="submit" value="Validate">
</form>

You are also you using type="button". And I'm not sure why you ought to separate the submit button, place it within the form. It's more proper to do it that way. This should work.