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jQuery validator gives error when a form element contains id with some special symbols. 'Unrecognized expression'

I have a form with some elements that use ids wich special symbols like this:
id="$FormData[1]$PersonData[1]$PhysicalPerson[1]$PersonName[1]$Affix[#type='qualification' and #position='prefix'][1]cb"
I have a function getEscapedID(id) that I use to escape a problematic characters when I need to find an element using jquery selector:
var input = $("#"+getEscapedID(id)).
This is not a problem - when I try it, I get the exact needed element. But calling input.valid(); gives me an error:
Error: Syntax error, unrecognized expression: label[for='$FormData[1]$PersonData[1]$PhysicalPerson[1]$PersonName[1]$Affix[#type='qualification' and #position='prefix'][1]cb']
EDIT:
My question is whether it is possible to do something about it. If not, then I will consider simplifying ids.

The problem was that I used perhaps old jquery.validate.min.js script. When I tried the one from here, it works:
http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.validate/1.9/jquery.validate.js
Eventually the form's ids were changed because it was not valid according to http://validator.w3.org, so I doubt the problem was primarily in the plugin.

jQuery: Unrecognized Expression (getting around this error)

jQuery("input[name=a.b.c]")
Executing this line using jQuery 1.10.2 or 1.9.1 results in the message:
"Syntax error, unrecognized expression: input:hidden[name=a.b.c]".
I understand the core problem which is that the dots are not escaped or quoted out. This would work:
jQuery("input[name='a.b.c']")
The constraint is that I do not have the ability to change the line of code with the bad selector. That line is produced by the website (which I don't own) and they don't give me the ability to change that.
However, they do allow me to add arbitrary JS files to the header of the page (which means I can use a different jQuery version or even edit the jQuery file). My question is whether anyone knows another way around this so that jQuery can cope without the quotes since I cannot change the bad code.
For those saying that I can just change the name, this doesn't help because the JS still throws an error because changing the name of the element doesn't fix the bad selector.
Thanks

The proper way of executing this selector is:
jQuery('input[name="a.b.c"]')
Obviously you need to edit the algorithm that creates this line, there's no way jquery will accept an invalid selector.

Take a look here.
How do I extend jQuery's selector engine to warn me when a selector is not found?
In your case I would do something like this.
var oldInit = $.fn.init;
$.fn.init = function(selector, context, rootjQuery) {
selector = fixItWithQuotes(selector, context, rootjQuery);
return new oldInit(selector, context, rootjQuery);
};
untested by me, but it should give you an idea.
Also, this might give you more ideas?
http://blog.tallan.com/2012/01/17/customizing-the-default-jquery-selector-behavior/
Hope that makes sense.

Why don't you change the name attribute yourself?
var el = $("input");
el.attr("name", el.attr("name").replace(/[\d\.]+/g, ""));
console.log(el.attr("name"));
Then change it back if you need to. jsFiddle here

Will jQuery escape my quotes properly?

I'm using $.cookie() to pull all the values from a cookie, in JSON format:
var props = $.cookie('params');
props returns:
{"distinct_id": "13f97d6600b42e-000e6293c-6b1b2e75-232800-13f97d6600cc82","utm_source": "the_source","utm_term": "myterms","utm_campaign": "campaign","utm_medium": "medium","utm_content": "content"}
I'm inserting this dynamically into a form with jQuery, and I want to ensure everything is going to POST properly, even though there's all kinds of crazy characters that could be in there which would normally conflict with HTML (fully qualified urls, &, ", ', maybe even a > or <)
I also need to make certain it works in IE6, IE7, etc.
var input = $('<input type="hidden" name="CustomField1">');
input.appendTo($('form[data-params=track]')).val(props);
It would *appear* to be working, but I want to make 100% sure I'm doing this right as it's quite important there are no bugs for this step.

I am pretty sure val() does not need any additional escaping as you are not actually editing raw HTML. val() sets DOM value on an element.
Generally setting attributes or properties through DOM/jQuery should be fine. Those will be auto-escaped when rendering innerHtml. But if you submit a page it does not even have to render anything -- it can just directly copy values from DOM to request.

Since your are setting the value of an input field, it should just work fine, there is no need to escape/process any characters in the input's value.

You can use the JavaScript escape() function to make sure the string get's escaped properly for display in the browser.

Reasons a variable can be undefined on iPad vs. being defined in my Browser?

I'm clueless.
In my Jquery Mobile Plugin I'm declaring:
var $currentEntry = $.mobile.urlHistory.stack[$.mobile.urlHistory.activeIndex].url;
$activePage = $('div:jqmData(url="'+ $currentEntry +'")');
So I'm taking the active page's url and use it to construct an $activePage object.
This works fine on desktop, but on my iPad (iOS3.3), $currentEntry is defined correctly, but $activePage is undefined.
Question:
What can be reasons for this?
You can rule out race conditions, because wrapping this in a 10sec timeout still produces the same result. Also, if I console the respective page directly and query it's data-url, it shows the correct value. So how come the above still gives me undefined on iOS
undefined
while working correctly everywhere else?
Thanks for any hints!
EDIT:
The element will be dynamic, but I can console for the page in my setup directly like so:
console.log( $('div:jqmData(wrapper="true").ui-page-active').attr('id') );
console.log( $('div:jqmData(wrapper="true").ui-page-active').attr('data-url') );
Both return the correct id and data-url, so the elements must exist.
EDIT2:
I can query for the attribute data-url which gives me the correct value. However, I cannot select using this attribute like so:
$('div[data-url="'+$currentEntry+'"]').length
which gives me 0

I am going to admit that I am blind-guessing, but you should try:
$activePage = $('div').filter(function(){return $(this).jqmData('url') === $currentEntry})
BTW, just for semantics i think "$currentEntry" shouldn't start with a dollar sign if it is not a jQuery object.

JQuery issue (major) with IE - all versions

This only happens with IE (all versions), on line 1120 in
jquery-1.2.6.js I get the following error:
Line 1120:
Invalid Property Value
The line in the js file is the following:
elem[name] = value;
It is inside attr: function( elem, name, value )
Does anybody have a problem similar to this?

If this is also you, it sounds like you're trying to change the CSS of the element rather than give it an attribute.
If that is the case then try this instead;
jQuery.css('color', 'inherit');

This error can also occur if you call jQuery.css with an invalid attribute value, such as:
$('div.foo').css('padding-left', 'NaNpx');

The problem is IE-only because you are probably trying to set something like "min-height" which exists in (a proper CSS implenting) browser like Firefox, but not in a (demon spawned fiend of a) browser like Internet Explorer. I ran in to the same issue using jQuery's own dialog UI function.
I was a huge proponent of jQuery before this, but this has really put some egg on its face.