Call MVC 3 Client Side Validation Manually for ajax posts

I am creating an MVC 3 web application. I want to use Data Annotations on my entity class and then use unobtrusive client side validation before making a post back to the server. This works fine when making a regular post. I get validation and the validation summary if any of the fields are not valid. However, I want to post back the information via ajax and json. How can I 'manually' validate the form on the client side first then make my ajax post back to the server. Below is a summarized version of my code.

  public class Customer
    {
        [Required(ErrorMessage = "The customer's first name is required.")]
        public string FirstName { get; set; }

        [Required(ErrorMessage = "The customer's last name is required.")]
        public string LastName { get; set; }
    }



    <% using (Html.BeginForm()) { %>
    
    <%: Html.LabelFor(model => model.FirstName, "First Name")%>
    <%: Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.FirstName, new { @class = "TextBox", id = "Customer.FirstName" })%>
    <%: Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FirstName, "*")%>
    
    <%: Html.LabelFor(model => model.LastName, "Last Name")%>
    <%: Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.LastName, new { @class = "TextBox", id = "Customer.LastName" })%>
    <%: Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.LastName, "*")%>
    
    <div id="CustomerEditSave" class="Button CustomerEditButtons" style="margin-right:40px;">
       <a href="#">Save</a>
    </div>
    
    <%: Html.ValidationSummary(true) %>
    
    <% } %>

I have tried this code but it only validates the first name and does not display the validation summary.

    $("#CustomerEditSave").click(function () {
        $(form).validate();
        //Ajax call here
    });

Try:

//using the form as the jQuery selector (recommended)
$('form').submit(function(evt) {
    evt.preventDefault();
    var $form = $(this);
    if($form.valid()) {
        //Ajax call here
    }
});

//using the click event on the submit button
$('#buttonId').click(function(evt) {
    evt.preventDefault();
    var $form = $('form');
    if($form.valid()) {
        //Ajax call here
    }
});

This should work with jQuery ajax and MSAjax calls. Could also try using http://nuget.org/packages/TakeCommand.js or https://github.com/webadvanced/takeCommand it will automatically handle this for you.

I have been phaffing about with MVC client side validation for days:

Don't use .click use .submit:

$("#MyForm").on('submit',function () {

    if($("#MyForm").valid())
    {
        //Do ajax stuff
    }

    //Return false regardless of validation to stop form submitting
    //prior to ajax doing its thing
    return false;
});

I'm going add an update to this, consider cancelling the event rather than returning false (or do both):

$("#MyForm").on('submit',function (e) {

    if($("#MyForm").valid())
    {
        //Do ajax stuff
    }

    e.preventDefault();

    //Return false regardless of validation to stop form submitting
    //prior to ajax doing its thing
    return false;
});

At least in my case (MVC 5), it was also necessary to add the following code or else .valid() would always return true:

$(function () {
$(document).ajaxComplete(function(event, request, settings){
    //re-parse the DOM after Ajax to enable client validation for any new form fields that have it enabled
    $.validator.unobtrusive.parse(document);
});

});

See http://johnculviner.com/the-unobtrusive-libraries-client-validation-on-ajax-in-asp-net-mvc-3/

IMPORTANT!!:

Paul's solution is the correct answer to the question, not Dr Rob's.

Although you can just use valid() instead of validate().form().

But more importantly, there really is no reason to restrict your code as suggested by Dr Rob, ie, not .click and only use .submit. That isn't what solved the problem! What solved the problem was wrapping the $.ajax(...) call in the if statement. Ie:

if($("#MyForm").valid())
{
    //call to $.ajax or equivalent goes in here.
}

I think that needs clarifying as otherwise the real answer to the problem is obfuscated.

$(YourForm).data('unobtrusiveValidation').validate()

        if(!$('#myform').data('unobtrusiveValidation').validate())
        {
           // add your extra custom logic
        } 
        else
        { 
             $('#myform').submit(); 
        }

It triggers the validation and returns a boolean, so you can check before submit.

.Valid() works. i.e it tells you whether your form is valid. However alone it does not help to show AND hide messages correctly. here's my manual validation method

function validate()
        {
            //valid() not only tells us whether the form is valid but 
            //also ensures that errors are shown !!!
            if ($("form").valid())
            {
                //if the form is valid we may need to hide previously displayed messages
                $(".validation-summary-errors").css("display", "none");
                $(".input-validation-error").removeClass("input-validation-error");
                return true;
            }
            else
            {
                //the form is not valide and because we are doing this all manually we also have to
                //show the validation summary manually 
                $(".validation-summary-errors").css("display", "block");
                return false;
            }
        }
        

I tried all of the above solutions but none worked on MVC5. 

I am using jQuery v2.1.4 and jQuery.Validation v1.11.1. I need to trigger validation while on page render. Only below one worked for me.

$(document).ready(function () {
   ...
   validateForm();
}

function validateForm() {`enter code here`
    var elem = document.getElementById('btnSave');
    elem.click();    
}

$('#btnSave').click(function (evt) {
    //evt.preventDefault();
    var form = $('form');
    if (form.valid()) {
        //Ajax call here
    }
    //$(".validation-summary-errors").css("display", "block");
});

function Validate() {
    // If no group name provided the whole page gets validated
    Page_ClientValidate();
}