If my element has a title attribute, I can't override a validation message. For example, I want to change "This field is required" to simply "Required". I do that with the following code:

$.extend($.validator.messages, { required: "Required" });

However, the defaultmessage function searches several places in a particular order for the first defined value, and element.title comes before $.validator.messages[] in the list.

See the code excerpt below.

Is there a better way to accomplish my goal short of editing the jquery source myself? I don't want to have to maintain the code change every time a new version of jquery comes out.

code excerpt from jquery.validate.js

defaultMessage: function(element, method) {

return this.findDefined(

this.customMessage(element.name, method),

this.customMetaMessage(element, method),

the next two lines should be reversed???

element.title || undefined,

$.validator.messages[method],

"<strong>Warning: No message defined for " + element.name + "</strong>");

}