SO fiddle

Test Fiddle mainly for SO Questions

by Nick Craver

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.4/themes/overcast/jquery-ui.css">
<script src="http://ajax.microsoft.com/ajax/jquery.validate/1.7/jquery.validate.js"></script>
<form id="frm" action="" method="get">
 <fieldset>
   <legend>Validation POC</legend>
   <p>
     <label for="cname">Name</label>
     <em>*</em><input id="cname" name="cname" size="25" />
   </p>
   <p>
     <label for="cemail">E-Mail</label>
     <em>*</em><input id="cemail" name="cemail"size="25"  />
   </p>
   <p>
     <input class="submit" type="submit" value="Submit"/>
   </p>
 </fieldset>
 </form>

CSS

.invalid { background: #ffdddd; }

JavaScript

$("#frm").validate({
    errorClass:"invalid",
    rules: {
        cname: { required: true },
        cemail: { required: true, email: true }
    },
    messages: {
        cname: "",
        cemail: ""
    }
});