jQuery-validate error messages in Twitter ...

http://www.jefclaes.be/2012/11/jquery-validate-error-messages-in.html

something satisfactory.
In this example, I have a bootstrapped form that looks like this.

@using (Html.BeginForm("ChangePassword", "Account", FormMethod.Post, new { @class = "form-horizontal"})) {

    <div class="control-group">
        <label class="control-label">Old password</label>
        <div class="controls">
            @Html.PasswordFor(m => m.OldPassword)
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="control-group">
        <label class="control-label">New password</label>
        <div class="controls">
            @Html.PasswordFor(m => m.NewPassword)
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="control-group">
        <label class="control-label">Confirm password</label>
        <div class="controls">
            @Html.PasswordFor(m => m.ConfirmPassword)
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="control-group">
        <div class="controls">
            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Change password</button>
        </div>
    </div>
}

To make the error messages show up in tooltips on the input controls, I eventually ended up with the snippet below.

$.validator.setDefaults({
    showErrors: function (errorMap, errorList) {
        this.defaultShowErrors();                            

        // destroy tooltips on valid elements
        $("." + this.settings.validClass)
            .tooltip("destroy");            

        // add/update tooltips
        for (var i = 0; i < errorList.length; i++) {
            var error = errorList[i];

            $("#" + error.element.id)
                .tooltip({ trigger: "focus" })
                .attr("data-original-title", error.message)
        }
    }
});

I'm setting a custom showErrors function to extend the behaviour of the jQuery validator. I don't want to lose the default behaviour (highlighting etc), so I start with invoking the default showErrors function, to then destroy the tooltip on all valid input elements and to finally add or update the tooltip and its title on all invalid input elements. The errorList argument holds all the information I need for this; an array of invalid elements and their corresponding error messages.

[Object, Object]
> 0: Object
>> element: <input>
>> message: "The Current password field is required."
> 1: Object
>> element: <input>
>> message: "The New password field is required."
> length: 2

The end result looks like this.