Title: custom validation
Last modified: March 20, 2017

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# custom validation

 *  Resolved [cnesbit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cnesbit/)
 * (@cnesbit)
 * [9 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-validation-8/)
 * is there a way to add custom validation to a mailpoet 3 form? Possibly with a
   separate plugin that lets me add custom PHP or JS to my blog.
 * Whether by PHP, or JS, it doesn’t matter as long as it works. One thing I’d like
   to validate, is the name field. For example, if someone submits a name that starts
   with numbers, it’s probably not a legit name.
 * Thanks!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Plugin Author [MailPoet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mailpoet/)
 * (@mailpoet)
 * [9 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-validation-8/#post-8938917)
 * Chris, we won’t add custom validation. You’ll need to hack our plugin for that.
 * Why do you want to validate first name for numbers? Sounds like an edge case.
 *  Thread Starter [cnesbit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cnesbit/)
 * (@cnesbit)
 * [9 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-validation-8/#post-8939026)
 * first off, I don’t like “hacking” a plugin that’s being actively developed because
   then I potentially have to choose between forking the plugin (and losing future
   improvements) or potentially losing my own changes when the plugin gets updated.
   Neither is ideal.
 * As for validating first name for numbers… I can see how some would consider it
   an edge case, but I have a specific situation on one of my blogs where I’m getting
   spammed by “subscribers” whose usernames are all a hash of alpha-numeric characters.
   These are not legit subscribers, and they’re hurting my email reputation. Why
   would I *not* want to protect my email reputation?
 * Really what it boils down to is, there may be plenty of situations where MailPoet
   users could benefit from a validation system that is more fleshed out or extensible.
   For example, a MailPoet subscribe form could be an extensive form asking for 
   lots of info from prospects who are showing interest in a business process, specialized
   product, feedback survey, “new account” questionnaire, etc, and being funneled
   into a specific list within MailPoet.
 * Being able to validate fields for their intended information-type would prevent
   the blogger/website-owner from having to waste time managing requests that are
   spammy, or that are legit – but incomplete.
 * Ultimately, I don’t think stricter validation is an unreasonable request as it
   improves the quality of MailPoet as a product. I see MailPoet as having the potential
   to be so much more than just a tool for bloggers to gather subscribers into their“
   post notification” list. It would not be a far stretch of the imagination to 
   see MailPoet being used as a full-on email marketing tool. And having field validation
   that is stricter (compared to where it is today) would improve the quality of
   the plugin overall.
 * Please consider improving validation in some way.
 * Thanks!
    Chris
 *  [Wysija](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wysija/)
 * (@wysija)
 * [9 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-validation-8/#post-8943048)
 * Chris, we covered this subject about spam sign up in this thread which you started:
 * [https://wordpress.org/support/topic/email-validator/](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/email-validator/)
 * Again, even if we put a JS validation, bots would still be able to go around 
   it. In other words, there’s no technical reason to do so.
 * I’ll follow up on the other thread this topic and mark this one as closed.
 *  Thread Starter [cnesbit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cnesbit/)
 * (@cnesbit)
 * [9 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-validation-8/#post-8943639)
 * point taken.
 * But even as a feature request, for use cases outside the obvious email subscribe
   form (with just email and name), I could see it beneficial to validate various
   field types (not necessarily in JS).
 * As in my example of a complex form that, when submitted, adds the user to a specific
   list. Allowing to have fields that validate phone numbers, or numbers, or a range
   of numbers, or email addresses (at least in format – see is_email() ), etc… would
   be helpful. And allowing a custom format validation would be an extreme edge 
   case I suppose.
 * Consider this a feature request that, I suppose, would probably target < 20% 
   of your audience. But would be a positive value-add to that segment.
 * Thanks!
    Chris

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘custom validation’ is closed to new replies.

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## Tags

 * [validation](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/validation/)

 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [cnesbit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cnesbit/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-validation-8/#post-8943639)
 * Status: resolved