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Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

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Phillip_Wild
Level 10

Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Hi Community!

We've been finding that unfortunately Marketo forms have pretty crappy email validation on them as default. Using the "Email" field means that a user is only required to enter an email with an "@" symbol - they don't need a period "." This means we get a bunch of junk emails that fail validation in our other systems.

Here's the code my developer gave me to solve this:

<script>

  MktoForms2.loadForm("//app-ab06.marketo.com", "110-AIL-152", 1330, function(form){

      form.onValidate(function(){

        // Get the values

        var vals = form.vals();

        var re = new RegExp(/^([\w-]+(?:\.[\w-]+)*)@((?:[\w-]+\.)*\w[\w-]{0,66})\.([a-z]{2,6}(?:\.[a-z]{2})?)$/i);

        if(re.test(vals.Email)){

          form.submittable(true);

        }

        else{

          form.submittable(false);

          var emailElem = form.getFormElem().find("#Email");

          form.showErrorMessage("Please enter a valid email format", emailElem);

        }

      });

    })

</script>

If I was using a "self-guided" landing page, I know how to implement this - simply create a HTML element and drop this script in the HTML code section. But with a guided landing page, it doesn't seem to work.

I've tried two ways - dumping it at the bottom of the raw code (after "editing draft" on my template), below where the other scripts are, and secondly, dropping it into a section via the landing page editor (much like I would with a "self-guided" page). Neither seems to work.

Any ideas? Is there an easier way to do this? I know you can "mask input" with fields in Marketo forms - is this a better way of doing it? Will there be disadvantages if I use this field type instead of "Email" field type?

Thanks in advance!

Phil

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Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Hi Phillip,

Try this at the bottom of the guided LP template:

<script>

MktoForms2.whenReady(function (form) {

      form.onValidate(function(){

        // Get the values

        var vals = form.vals();

        var re = new RegExp(/^([\w-]+(?:\.[\w-]+)*)@((?:[\w-]+\.)*\w[\w-]{0,66})\.([a-z]{2,6}(?:\.[a-z]{2})?)$/i);

        if(re.test(vals.Email)){

          form.submittable(true);

        }

        else{

          form.submittable(false);

          var emailElem = form.getFormElem().find("#Email");

          form.showErrorMessage("Please enter a valid email format", emailElem);

        }

      });

});

</script>

-Greg

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15 REPLIES 15
Josh_Hill13
Level 10 - Champion Alumni

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Sanford Whiteman​ has probably posted on this before. Check developers.marketo.com too.

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Thanks, Josh.

Phillip​, your developer's regex is broken: don't use it.  Greg's is broken, too.  Courtney's is a little better, but it's still going to barf on perfectly valid emails.

There's nothing surprising about this, as it's been known for a long time that writing a single regex to catch all valid emails is hopeless. Cool as regexes are, they can't solve everything.  You would not find a mail server -- a server which is actually responsible for delivering email -- using a single regex, so there's no reason to think that you can reduce it to a one-liner and accurately reflect the real world.

Here, for example, is the local mailbox code parser from sendmail (which still doesn't support the full set of possible addresses):

pastedImage_0.png

The bottom line, if you don't want to falsely turn away leads, is you need to either [a] validate only the domain and not try to apply incomplete intelligence about the the local-part (mailbox); [b] use a true verification service that connects to the remote mailserver and sees if the mailbox exists; or [c] use a JS validator that's written to the spec, meaning it's not a regex.

Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Hi Sanford,

Sorry, I just copied Phillip's regex, just fixed the error on how it was integrated in the template

-Greg

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Gotcha, I wasn't blaming anyone anyway... it just doesn't make sense to take a risk on the front end, since the truth is we don't actually care about good-looking/average-looking addresses. We care about real-world *mailable* addresses. And there's no better place to apply Postel's Law than one of Postel's brainchildren, SMTP.

Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Hi Phillip,

Try this at the bottom of the guided LP template:

<script>

MktoForms2.whenReady(function (form) {

      form.onValidate(function(){

        // Get the values

        var vals = form.vals();

        var re = new RegExp(/^([\w-]+(?:\.[\w-]+)*)@((?:[\w-]+\.)*\w[\w-]{0,66})\.([a-z]{2,6}(?:\.[a-z]{2})?)$/i);

        if(re.test(vals.Email)){

          form.submittable(true);

        }

        else{

          form.submittable(false);

          var emailElem = form.getFormElem().find("#Email");

          form.showErrorMessage("Please enter a valid email format", emailElem);

        }

      });

});

</script>

-Greg

Phillip_Wild
Level 10

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Hi Gregoire

Thanks, your code works perfectly! While I understand it may not be perfection for validation, it's going to fix the problem in the short term.

Phil

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Hi Greg,

I used it in my landing page template but it is not working

Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Hi Faizal,

Better reopen a new thread, you will get more visibility and more answers.

And provide more info, if possible the page URL.

-Greg

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Email validation in Marketo through Javascript

Hi Greg,

this is the url : Download

let me know your thoughts on this