title: Can you validate fieldsets individually using the jquery validation plugin from bassassistance?
body: <p>I have a form that uses the validation plugin, but I need to validate a separate part of the form using slightly different criteria - most of the fields place the error in the next table cell, but for one field I need the error placed somewhere else.</p>
  
  <p>This is the validate function for the main form fields:</p>
  
  <pre><code>jQuery("#form2").validate({
      rules: {
          street: {
              required: true,
              minlength: 5
          },
          city: {
              required: true,
              minlength: 3
          },
          state: {
              required: true
          },
          zip: {
              required: true,
              minlength: 5
          }
      },
      messages: {
          street: {
              required: "Please enter your address",
              minlength: "Address is too short"
          },
          city: {
              required: "Please enter your town/city",
              minlength: "Town/City is too short"
          },
          state: {
              required: "Please enter your county"
          },
          zip: { 
              required: "Please enter your postcode",
              minlength: "Postcode is too short"
          }
      },
      errorPlacement: function(error, element) {
              error.appendTo(element.parent("td").next("td"));
      }
  }); // end validate
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Basically I would also like to validate this fieldset separately, so a different value can be used for errorPlacement:</p>
  
  <pre><code>    jQuery("#elecfields").validate({
      rules: {
          sup1: {
              minlength: 2
          }
      },
      messages: {
          sup1: {
              minlength: "must be 2 digits"
          }
      },
      errorPlacement: function(error, element)
      {
          // different error placement is needed here
      }
  
  }); // end elecfields validate
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>elecfields is a fieldset inside form2 - but this doesn't seem to work.</p>
  
  <p>It seems that the errorPlacement must apply to all fields in the form, but I just have that one field that needs the error places somewhere else. Any ideas for how this can be achieved? Any help is very much appreciated.</p>