I turned javascript off in my browser to test and see if the server validations kicked in, and yes! they did :) BUT, the phone number text field has two error messages, one says "Please provide you phone number." and a second one below that which says "Invalid format, please re-enter your phone number."
So how can I fix the validation toolkit server behaviors to show only the first error message if they have simply not entered anything at all in the phone number field?
thanks...almost there, I think :)