Concise ASP.NET Validation Summary - asp.net

Question

is there any way to get the ASP.NET validation summary control to just display the HeaderText when there is a validation error?
Basically what I want is for just a simple message like "Please complete all fields marked *" to appear next to the submit button. As I'm using "*" for the error message on the validators I don't want these to appear in the summary.
Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Set each validators Text to "*" and ErrorMessage to an empty string.
<form id="form2" runat="server">
Name:<br />
<asp:TextBox ID="NameTextBox" runat="server" />
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator
ID="NameTextBoxRequiredValidator"
ControlToValidate="NameTextBox"
ErrorMessage=""
Text="*"
runat="server" />
<br />
City:<br />
<asp:TextBox ID="CityTextBox" runat="server" />
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator
ID="CityTextBoxRequiredValidator"
ControlToValidate="CityTextBox"
ErrorMessage=""
Text="*"
runat="server" />
<br />
<asp:Button ID="SubmitButton" Text="Submit" runat="server" />
<hr />
<asp:ValidationSummary
ID="valSum"
DisplayMode="SingleParagraph"
HeaderText="Please complete all fields marked *"
runat="server" />
</form>

Answer 2

If you just use the Text property of your validator controls and leave the ErrorMessage property blank then that should solve your problem.

Answer 3

You could use a CustomValidator and set the ClientValidationFunction property to execute a JavaScript function that would populate a label to display your message.
ASPX:
<asp:CustomValidator ID="validator" runat="server" ErrorMessage="*" ClientValidationFunction="Validate" ControlToValidate="controltovalidate" ValidateEmptyText="true"></asp:CustomValidator>
JavaScript:
function Validate(sender,args)
{
args.IsValid = true;
if(args.Value == "")
{
document.getElementById('YourCustomMessageLabel').innerText = "Please complete all fields marked *"
args.IsValid = false;
}
}