(Extension of @lepe's and @redsquare answer for ASP.NET MVC + jquery.validate.unobtrusive.js)
The jquery validation plugin (not the Microsoft unobtrusive one) allows you to put a .cancel class on your submit button to bypass validation completely (as shown in accepted answer).
To skip validation while still using a submit-button, add a class="cancel" to that input.
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit"/>
<input type="submit" class="cancel" name="cancel" value="Cancel"/>
(don't confuse this with type='reset' which is something completely different)
Unfortunately the jquery.validation.unobtrusive.js validation handling (ASP.NET MVC) code kinda screws up the jquery.validate plugin's default behavior.
This is what I came up with to allow you to put .cancel on the submit button as shown above. If Microsoft ever 'fixes' this then you can just remvoe this code.
// restore behavior of .cancel from jquery validate to allow submit button
// to automatically bypass all jquery validation
$(document).on('click', 'input[type=image].cancel,input[type=submit].cancel', function (evt)
{
// find parent form, cancel validation and submit it
// cancelSubmit just prevents jQuery validation from kicking in
$(this).closest('form').data("validator").cancelSubmit = true;
$(this).closest('form').submit();
return false;
});
Note: If at first try it appears that this isn't working - make sure you're not roundtripping to the server and seeing a server generated page with errors. You'll need to bypass validation on the server side by some other means - this just allows the form to be submitted client side without errors (the alternative would be adding .ignore attributes to everything in your form).
(Note: you may need to add button to the selector if you're using buttons to submit)