var data = [
	{name:'qA_your_name', 			type:'text', 	required:'yes'}, 
	{name:'qA_phone_number', 		type:'phone', 	required:'yes'}, 
	{name:'qA_email_address', 		type:'email', 	required:'yes'}
];

function form_check (formName) {
	
	whiteoutform(formName);
	if (!checkEmpty (data))  {
		return false;
	} else {
		return true;
	}
}

function checkEmpty (mydata) {

	var field = '';
	
	for (var i=0;i<mydata.length;i++) {
		field = document.getElementById(mydata[i].name);

		if (mydata[i].required=='yes') {
			if (field.value=='') { 
				alert('This field is empty'); 
				field.focus();	
				changeBackground (field);
				return false;
			} else if ((mydata[i].type=='phone') && (!validatePhone(field))) { 
				field.focus();	
				changeBackground (field);
				return false;
			} else if ((mydata[i].type=='zip') && (!validateZIP(field))) { 
				field.focus();	
				changeBackground (field);
				return false;
			} else if ((mydata[i].type=='email') && (!validateEmail(field))) { 
				field.focus();	
				changeBackground (field);
				return false;
			}

		}

	} 
	return true;
}

function validateZIP(passField) {
	var zipfield = passField.value;
	
	var valid = "0123456789-";
	var hyphencount = 0;
	
	if (zipfield.length!=5 && zipfield.length!=10) {
		alert("Please enter your 5 digit or 5 digit+4 zip code.");
		return false;
	}
	
	for (var i=0; i < zipfield.length; i++) {
		temp = "" + zipfield.substring(i, i+1);
		if (temp == "-") hyphencount++;
		if (valid.indexOf(temp) == "-1") {
			alert("Invalid characters in your zip code.  Please try again.");
			return false;
		}
	
		if ((hyphencount > 1) || ((zipfield.length==10) && ""+zipfield.charAt(5)!="-")) {
			alert("The hyphen character should be used with a properly formatted 5 digit+four zip code, like '12345-6789'.   Please try again.");
			return false;
		}
	}
	
	return true;
}


function validatePhone (passField) {
	var phonenum = passField.value;
	var re = /[\D]/g;// remove non-numeric numbers
	phonenum = phonenum.replace(re , '');
	if (phonenum.length!=10) { 
		passField.value = phonenum;	
		alert('Please enter a 10 digit phone number of the form 123-123-1234');
		return false;
	 } else {
	 	phonenum = phonenum.substring(0, 3) + '-' + phonenum.substring(3, 6) + '-' + phonenum.substring(6, 10);
		passField.value = phonenum;	 
		return true;
	}
}

function validateEmail (passField) {
	var emailStr = passField.value;
	/* The following variable tells the rest of the function whether or not
	to verify that the address ends in a two-letter country or well-known
	TLD.  1 means check it, 0 means don't. */
	
	var checkTLD=1;
	
	/* The following is the list of known TLDs that an e-mail address must end with. */
	
	var knownDomsPat=/^(com|net|org|edu|int|mil|gov|arpa|biz|aero|name|coop|info|pro|museum)$/;
	
	/* The following pattern is used to check if the entered e-mail address
	fits the user@domain format.  It also is used to separate the username
	from the domain. */
	
	var emailPat=/^(.+)@(.+)$/;
	
	/* The following string represents the pattern for matching all special
	characters.  We don't want to allow special characters in the address. 
	These characters include ( ) < > @ , ; : \ " . [ ] */
	
	var specialChars="\\(\\)><@,;:\\\\\\\"\\.\\[\\]";
	
	/* The following string represents the range of characters allowed in a 
	username or domainname.  It really states which chars aren't allowed.*/
	
	var validChars="\[^\\s" + specialChars + "\]";
	
	/* The following pattern applies if the "user" is a quoted string (in
	which case, there are no rules about which characters are allowed
	and which aren't; anything goes).  E.g. "jiminy cricket"@disney.com
	is a legal e-mail address. */
	
	var quotedUser="(\"[^\"]*\")";
	
	/* The following pattern applies for domains that are IP addresses,
	rather than symbolic names.  E.g. joe@[123.124.233.4] is a legal
	e-mail address. NOTE: The square brackets are required. */
	
	var ipDomainPat=/^\[(\d{1,3})\.(\d{1,3})\.(\d{1,3})\.(\d{1,3})\]$/;
	
	/* The following string represents an atom (basically a series of non-special characters.) */
	
	var atom=validChars + '+';
	
	/* The following string represents one word in the typical username.
	For example, in john.doe@somewhere.com, john and doe are words.
	Basically, a word is either an atom or quoted string. */
	
	var word="(" + atom + "|" + quotedUser + ")";
	
	// The following pattern describes the structure of the user
	
	var userPat=new RegExp("^" + word + "(\\." + word + ")*$");
	
	/* The following pattern describes the structure of a normal symbolic
	domain, as opposed to ipDomainPat, shown above. */
	
	var domainPat=new RegExp("^" + atom + "(\\." + atom +")*$");
	
	/* Finally, let's start trying to figure out if the supplied address is valid. */
	
	/* Begin with the coarse pattern to simply break up user@domain into
	different pieces that are easy to analyze. */
	
	var matchArray=emailStr.match(emailPat);
	
	if (matchArray==null) {
	
	/* Too many/few @'s or something; basically, this address doesn't
	even fit the general mould of a valid e-mail address. */
	
	alert("Email address seems incorrect (check @ and .'s)");
		return false;
	}
	var user=matchArray[1];
	var domain=matchArray[2];
	
	// Start by checking that only basic ASCII characters are in the strings (0-127).
	
	for (i=0; i<user.length; i++) {
		if (user.charCodeAt(i)>127) {
			alert("Ths username contains invalid characters.");
			return false;
		}
	}
	
	for (i=0; i<domain.length; i++) {
		if (domain.charCodeAt(i)>127) {
			alert("Ths domain name contains invalid characters.");
			return false;
		}
	}
	
	// See if "user" is valid 
	
	if (user.match(userPat)==null) {
	
	// user is not valid
	
	alert("The username doesn't seem to be valid.");
		return false;
	}
	
	/* if the e-mail address is at an IP address (as opposed to a symbolic
	host name) make sure the IP address is valid. */
	
	var IPArray=domain.match(ipDomainPat);
	
	if (IPArray!=null) {
	// this is an IP address
	
		for (var i=1;i<=4;i++) {
			if (IPArray[i]>255) {
				alert("Destination IP address is invalid!");
				return false;
			   }
		}
		return true;
	}
	
	// Domain is symbolic name.  Check if it's valid.
	 
	var atomPat=new RegExp("^" + atom + "$");
	var domArr=domain.split(".");
	var len=domArr.length;
	for (i=0;i<len;i++) {
	if (domArr[i].search(atomPat)==-1) {
	alert("The domain name does not seem to be valid.");
	return false;
	   }
	}
	
	/* domain name seems valid, but now make sure that it ends in a
	known top-level domain (like com, edu, gov) or a two-letter word,
	representing country (uk, nl), and that there's a hostname preceding 
	the domain or country. */
	
	if (checkTLD && domArr[domArr.length-1].length!=2 && 
		domArr[domArr.length-1].search(knownDomsPat)==-1) {
		alert("The address must end in a well-known domain or two letter " + "country.");
		return false;
	}
	
	// Make sure there's a host name preceding the domain.
	
	if (len<2) {
		alert("This address is missing a hostname!");
		return false;
	}
	
	// If we've gotten this far, everything's valid!
	return true;
}

function whiteoutform(formName) {
	var myform = document.getElementById(formName);
	for (var i=0; i< myform.elements.length;i++) {
		myform.elements[i].style.backgroundColor="#FFFFFF";
	}
}

function changeBackground(passField) {
	passFieldname = passField.name;
	blinkme(passFieldname, 0); // can only pass string, not objects
}

function blinkme(thispassField, count) {
 	if (count%2==0) {
		document.getElementById(thispassField).style.backgroundColor = '#ffffff';
	} else {
		document.getElementById(thispassField).style.backgroundColor = '#FFFF00';
	}
	count++;
	if (count<14) {
		setTimeout("blinkme('"+thispassField+"', '"+count+"')", 50); 
	}
}