Jquery Live Form Validation

Question

I'm currently using this plugin to perform live form validation GeekTantra

This is working well and is validating all of my form fields bar one.

I'm trying to see if a username entered into a field matches a value in an array and if it does return a 'username is already in use' message. The data is being collected using PHP, converted to lowercase and then written to a jquery array.

Checking that array using console.log(username) shows :

["bob", "brian", "charlie", "mike", "dave", "simon", "lincoln", "reg", "bill"] 

The rule I'm using is:

    jQuery("#name").validate({
        expression: "if ($.inArray(VAL.toLowerCase(), username)!==-1) return true; else return false;",
        message: "username is already in use"
    });

Yet I never seem to get the results expected. Looking at the array I can see reg is in use, but if I enter REG or reg etc in the form field, It doesn't match the array. If I enter Phil then I get told that is in use, when it's not.

What am I doing wrong ?

Thanks

UPDATE

This works.. why ?

expression: "if ($.inArray(VAL.toLowerCase(), username)<=-1) return true; else return false;",

Answer 1

i think its a syntax error

try to change=>

from--

if ($.inArray(VAL.toLowerCase(), username)!==-1)

to---

if ($.inArray(VAL.toLowerCase(), username)!=-1)

Answer 2

It seems likely that username is not in the scope of the expression. You could do document.username = username and use document.username in the expression.