How to trigger form validation without submitting the form

Hi,

I have searched for tow days this forum but cannot find a way to solved my problem so here it is.

I want to submit a form through ajax without refreshing the page and I want to trigger validation before that.

I searched and apparently validation is fired up only on form submission.
I do not want to submit the form because this will cause the page to reload and I do not want that.
What I want is to fire up form validation when I click the ajax button and then only if the validation passes to submit the form again through ajax so the record is saved.

I hope I explained clearly, if not I will try to explain again.

Thanks,
Doru.