This is a message.

Error Summary

If you want alternate ways of displaying errors you can write a reusable effect for that.

Please fix these first

Sample registration form

Enter bad values and then press the submit button.

standalone demo

HTML coding

This effect contains a single error container for all validation errors. Here it is 

<div id="errors">
  <h2>Please fix these first</h2>
</div>

HTML

Styling the error container

The form itself uses this external stylesheet. We have added addional styling for the error message container. Nothing special here. 

/* error container */
#errors {
	background-color:#163356;
	color:#fff;
	width:400px;
	padding:20px;
	margin:5px auto;
	display:none;
	-moz-border-radius:5px;
	-webkit-border-radius:5px;
}
 
/* title */
#errors h2 {
	margin:-5px 0;
	color:yellow;
}

CSS

The custom effect

Here is the custom effect. It is added with $.tools.validator.addEffect method as described in Making custom effects section of the validator documentation. The effect takes the container, makes it visible and adds the messages inside it. It is only triggered upon form submission and not when fields are edited. 

// adds an effect called "wall" to the validator
$.tools.validator.addEffect("wall", function(errors, event) {
 
	// get the message wall
	var wall = $(this.getConf().container).fadeIn();
 
	// remove all existing messages
	wall.find("p").remove();
 
	// add new ones
	$.each(errors, function(index, error) {
		wall.append(
			"<p><strong>" +error.input.attr("name")+ "</strong> " +error.messages[0]+ "</p>"
		);
	});
 
// the effect does nothing when all inputs are valid
}, function(inputs)  {
 
});

JavaScript

You need to place the script block after the HTML code or you can alternatively use jQuery's $(document).ready to execute the script as soon as the webpage's Document Object Model (DOM) has been loaded. Read more about that from the User's Manual.

Using the effect

Now we initialize the validator and also make a custom form submission logic. 

// initialize validator with the new effect
$("#myform").validator({
   effect: 'wall',
   container: '#errors',
 
   // do not validate inputs when they are edited
   errorInputEvent: null
 
// custom form submission logic
}).submit(function(e)  {
 
   // when data is valid
   if (!e.isDefaultPrevented()) {
 
      // tell user that everything is OK
      $("#errors").html("<h2>All good</h2>");
 
      // prevent the form data being submitted to the server
      e.preventDefault();
   }
 
});

JavaScript