Support

October 12, 2012 at 6:29 am

Hi Tom,

If the script isn’t being called at all, this is likely from the WordPress theme not including the wp_footer() function. In order for most plugins to function properly, there needs to be a call to wp_footer in the footer.php template of the theme.

If it’s not there, you may need to contact the theme’s developer, or you can add it just before the closing body tag. Please see this reference for more info:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_footer

October 12, 2012 at 8:38 am

Hi Tom,

The root of the problem here is there is a few things in this theme that are not following WordPress coding standards. So there are some dependancies that are not being met.

Looking at the source of the page again, I can see that the jQuery library is loading after the validate script. That’s why validate has no method. If if gets removed and added at an earlier part of the document, the validation script will work.

You can look in footer.php to see how it’s being called there, and check header.php to see if wp_head() is being called. (If it’s not there, it really needs to be.) Ideally, jQuery will load automatically in wp_head() if all the scripts that need it declare it as a dependency. You can also enqueue it from the functions.php file, and it will load the head of the document in the event that a script needs it, but doesn’t declare it. So in functions.php you can add:

<?php
function my_theme_scripts_method() {
    wp_enqueue_script( 'jquery' );
}    

add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_theme_scripts_method');
?>

Here’s a simulated version of the above linked page with the jQuery library moved to the head of the document:
http://jsfiddle.net/joshfeck/BwG6t/embedded/result/

Here’s a reference that goes into more detail about how JavaScript should be loaded in a WordPress theme:
http://wpcandy.com/teaches/how-to-load-scripts-in-wordpress-themes