The purpose of the validateField client script function is to control what you can and can’t enter in a certain field. One example of how you might want to place controls on a field is with the Job Title field on the customer record. You might want it to be at least 3 characters to prevent someone from just entering something like “VP” instead of “VP of Finance.” Let’s take the existing script that we’ve been working with and add the validateField function to prevent that exact scenario from happening.

If you need a refresher on what we’ve covered so far in this SuiteScript tutorial series, feel free to check out the previous post on the client script save record function. To review the entire series up to this point, start with the first post, SuiteScript 2.0 Basics.

Now, as we jump into working with the validateField function, here is the full script that we have created so far:

define(['N/record','N/search','N/ui/dialog', 'N/log'], function (record, search, dialog, log) {
    /**
    *@NApiVersion 2.0
    *@NScriptType ClientScript
    */
    
    function pageInit(context) {
        var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;
        
        var firstName = currentRecord.getValue({
            fieldId: 'firstname'
        });
        log.debug({
            title: 'Customer First Name', 
            details: firstName
        });
        
        dialog.alert({
            title: 'Announcement',
            message: 'You are viewing ' + firstName
        });

        currentRecord.setValue({
            fieldId: 'comments',
            value: 'Use this area for any customer comments.'
        });        
    }

    function fieldChanged(context) {
        var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;

        if(context.fieldId == 'title'){
            var jobTitle = currentRecord.getValue({
                fieldId: 'title'
            });

            dialog.alert({
                title: 'Job Title Change',
                message: 'Job Title has changed to ' + jobTitle
            });
        }
    }

    function saveRecord(context) {
        var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;

        var comments = currentRecord.getValue({
            fieldId: 'comments'
        });

        if (!comments){
            dialog.alert({
                title: 'Comments Needed',
                message: 'Please enter comments for this customer'
            });
            return false;
        }else {
            return true;
        }
    }
    
    return {
        pageInit: pageInit,
        fieldChanged: fieldChanged,
        saveRecord: saveRecord
    }
    
});

Validate Field Function

Similar to the saveRecord function, the validateField function needs to return either true or false. If it returns true the field is permitted to be changed. If it returns false the field is not permitted to be changed. Here is the basic setup of the validateField function:

function validateField(context) {
    var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;

    return true;
}

We need the var currentRecord = context.currentRecord; line to give us access to the record and ultimately the “Job Title” field. The return true; line will allow the field to change if it passes the validation. Between those two line is where we will add the code to validate the “Job Title” field to make sure it contains at least 3 characters.

We also need to add validateField: validateField to the return section at the end of the script:

return {
    pageInit: pageInit,
    fieldChanged: fieldChanged,
    validateField: validateField,
    saveRecord: saveRecord
}

Validate The Job Title Field

Now we can start adding the logic to validate the “Job Title” field so that it requires 3 or more characters. The first thing we need to do is find the internal id of the “Job Title” field. When you look at the NetSuite Record Browser, you will notice that the internal id of that field is title.

We will add a conditional “IF” statement to make sure we are only validating the “Job Title” field and not any of the other fields. To get the internal id of the current field being changed we will need to use context.fieldId. Here is the updated function with the basic “IF” statement that checks to see if the current field id is equal to title:

function validateField(context) {
    var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;

    if (context.fieldId == 'title'){

    }

    return true;
}

Inside the curly brackets of the “IF” statement is where all the logic will go. We need to get two things: the value of the “Job Title” field and the number of characters.

  1. Get the value of the “Job Title.” Since we did this before in a previous tutorial, I’ll just copy that below.
var jobTitle = currentRecord.getValue({
    fieldId: 'title'
});

2. Get the character count of the “Job Title.” There is a simple javascript way to get the character count of a string. Simply add .length to the end of the variable. To get the character count of jobTitle, we will create another variable to store the count and we would write something like this: var jobTitleLength = jobTitle.length;.

Once you add this into the “IF” statement, the validateField function should look like this:

function validateField(context) {
    var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;

    if (context.fieldId == 'title'){
        var jobTitle = currentRecord.getValue({
            fieldId: 'title'
        });
        var jobTitleLength = jobTitle.length;
    }

    return true;
}

Add “IF” Statement

Now we need to add another “IF” statement that compares the character length of the “Job Title” field to make sure it is not under 3, and if it is we will return false; to prevent the field from being changed. This “IF” statement will still need to be inside the other “IF” statement and right after the jobTitleLength variable.

The condition for “If Job Title Length is less than 3” is if (jobTitleLength < 3).

And the alert message can be set up like this:

dialog.alert({
    title: 'Insufficient Job Title',
    message: 'The Job Title needs to be 3 or more characters.'
});

Inside the “IF” we need to add the return false; line to prevent the field from being changed. The updated function looks like this:

function validateField(context) {
    var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;

    if (context.fieldId == 'title'){
        var jobTitle = currentRecord.getValue({
            fieldId: 'title'
        });
        var jobTitleLength = jobTitle.length;
        if (jobTitleLength < 3){
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

Once we add the function to the rest of the script, the whole script should look like this:

define(['N/record','N/search','N/ui/dialog', 'N/log'], function (record, search, dialog, log) {
    /**
    *@NApiVersion 2.0
    *@NScriptType ClientScript
    */
    
    function pageInit(context) {
        var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;
        
        var firstName = currentRecord.getValue({
            fieldId: 'firstname'
        });
        log.debug({
            title: 'Customer First Name', 
            details: firstName
        });
        
        dialog.alert({
            title: 'Announcement',
            message: 'You are viewing ' + firstName
        });

        currentRecord.setValue({
            fieldId: 'comments',
            value: 'Use this area for any customer comments.'
        });        
    }

    function fieldChanged(context) {
        var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;

        if(context.fieldId == 'title'){
            var jobTitle = currentRecord.getValue({
                fieldId: 'title'
            });

            dialog.alert({
                title: 'Job Title Change',
                message: 'Job Title has changed to ' + jobTitle
            });
        }
    }

    function validateField(context) {
        var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;

        if (context.fieldId == 'title'){
            var jobTitle = currentRecord.getValue({
                fieldId: 'title'
            });
            var jobTitleLength = jobTitle.length;
            if (jobTitleLength < 3){
                return false;
            }
        }
        return true;
    }

    function saveRecord(context) {
        var currentRecord = context.currentRecord;

        var comments = currentRecord.getValue({
            fieldId: 'comments'
        });

        if (!comments){
            dialog.alert({
                title: 'Comments Needed',
                message: 'Please enter comments for this customer'
            });
            return false;
        }else {
            return true;
        }
    }
    
    return {
        pageInit: pageInit,
        fieldChanged: fieldChanged,
        validateField: validateField,
        saveRecord: saveRecord
    }
    
});

Update the Script Record and Test

Now you can update your script record and test. Here is reminder for how to update the script record:

  1. View the script record (don’t click on edit).
  2. Go to the “Scripts” tab.
  3. Click “edit” next to the “Script File.”
  4. Copy your new code and paste it in the window that pops up to replace the old code.
  5. Save.

Conclusion

When you can navigate to a customer record and edit the Job Title field, the script will not allow you to change the Job Title to anything with fewer than 3 characters. It would be nice to show an alert to the user at this time, but the regular alert we have used in these tutorials will not work with the validateField function. In our next post we will learn about another type of message that will work, making this a little more user-friendly.

As always, feel free to drop a comment if you have any questions. And if you have found these SuiteScript tutorials to be helpful, don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing list so you can receive our latest developing blogs directly in your inbox each week!