How to validate a specific text field value?

[Phil Berkey]

I'd like to ask a question and have the user
type a specific answer into a field. how do I validate
the answer. Any help would be great!

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
 
function validateForm()
{
var x=document.forms["myForm"]["myText"].value
if (x==null || x=="")
  {
  alert("That is not the correct answer");
  return false;
  }
}
//-->
</script>

[Dormilich]

that depends on how "secret" the answer should be. anything present in JS can be seen by the user.

[Phil Berkey]

At this time I'm not real worried about someone being able to find the answer in the source code. Obviously i could tuck it away further in a separate .js file or go server side later. Just looking for assistance on the function. If you could help that would be great.

[Dormilich]

OK, then, please define "specific answer".

[Phil Berkey]

How about "viking".

[JKing]

Your validation will depend on how strict you want to be with the answer.

I suggest trimming the whitespace, converting the string to all lowercase and then doing a comparisson. This way if they enter "Viking" or "VIKING" or " viking " they will still get the correct answer.

I would save all answers to a database just in case there are any discrepancies.