Jquery Validation Not Getting Options

I'm trying to customise my form validation with no success. Nor message nor custom error class is firing when I test. Still, it seems to work, since it shows the standard error mes

Solution 1:

The rules object can only be constructed using the name attribute. In your case, the name is contact_email, not email...

rules: {
    contact_email: {
        email: true
    }
},
messages: {
    contact_email: {
        email: 'Please enter a valid email format: name@domain'
    }
},

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/ov8zx694/2/

---

Also, the CSS is not working because you don't have any markup that contains the control-group class.

$(element).closest('.control-group').addClass(errorClass);

Either change the markup so that it contains this class or change the class name to something that's already in your markup...

$(element).closest('.form-group').addClass(errorClass);

DEMO 2: http://jsfiddle.net/ov8zx694/3/