diff --git a/webapp/config/tlds/vitroForm.tld b/webapp/config/tlds/vitroForm.tld
index 7838e0b09..7df1377f0 100644
--- a/webapp/config/tlds/vitroForm.tld
+++ b/webapp/config/tlds/vitroForm.tld
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@
 		<body-content>empty</body-content>
 		<attribute>
 			<name>type</name>
-			<required>true</required>
+			<required>false</required>
 			<rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
 		</attribute>
         <attribute>
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/freemarker/FreemarkerHttpServlet.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/freemarker/FreemarkerHttpServlet.java
index c713c7155..0d11449f1 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/freemarker/FreemarkerHttpServlet.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/freemarker/FreemarkerHttpServlet.java
@@ -330,8 +330,13 @@ public class FreemarkerHttpServlet extends VitroHttpServlet {
         }        
     }
     
-    // Add any Java directives the templates should have access to
-    private Map<String, Object> getDirectives() {
+    /**
+     *  Add any Java directives the templates should have access to.
+     *  This is public and static so that these may be used by other classes during
+     *  the transition from JSP to Freemarker.
+     * @return
+     */    
+    public static Map<String, Object> getDirectives() {
         Map<String, Object> map = new HashMap<String, Object>();
         map.put("describe", new edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.web.directives.dump.DescribeDirective());
         map.put("dump", new edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.web.directives.dump.DumpDirective());
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/elements/EditElement.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/elements/EditElement.java
index 690146d0e..dcc6e7484 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/elements/EditElement.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/elements/EditElement.java
@@ -20,6 +20,18 @@ public interface EditElement {
     public Map<String,Literal> 
         getLiterals(String fieldName, EditConfiguration editConfig, Map<String,String[]> queryParameters );
     
+    /**
+     * This is a method to get a map of variable name to URI value from the submitted form. 
+     */
+    public Map<String,String> 
+        getURIs(String fieldName, EditConfiguration editConfig, Map<String,String[]> queryParameters );
+    
+    /**
+     * Gets validation error messages.  Returns an empty list if there are no errors.
+     */
+    public Map<String,String>
+        getValidationMessages(String fieldName, EditConfiguration editConfig, Map<String,String[]> queryParameters);
+    
     /**
      * This is a method to generate the HTML output for a form element.  It should use a freemarker template
      * to produce the output.  
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/n3editing/EditN3Generator.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/n3editing/EditN3Generator.java
index 98cce94df..a040b72ff 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/n3editing/EditN3Generator.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/n3editing/EditN3Generator.java
@@ -52,11 +52,13 @@ public class EditN3Generator {
     }
 
 
+
     public static String subInUris(String var, String value, String target){
         //empty URIs get skipped
         if( var == null || var.length() == 0 || value==null  )
             return target;
-        String varRegex = "\\?" + var + "(?=[\\W])";
+        /* var followed by dot some whitespace or var followed by whitespace*/
+        String varRegex = "\\?" + var + "(?=\\.\\p{Space}|\\p{Space})";
         String out = null;
         if("".equals(value))
         	out = target.replaceAll(varRegex,">::" + var + " was BLANK::< ");
@@ -106,7 +108,7 @@ public class EditN3Generator {
      *
      */
     protected  String subInLiterals(String var, Literal literal, String target){
-        String varRegex = "\\?" + var + "(?=[\\W])";
+        String varRegex = "\\?" + var + "(?=\\.\\p{Space}|\\p{Space})";
         if (target==null ) {
             log.error("subInLiterals was passed a null target");
             return "blankBecauseTargetOrValueWasNull";
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/n3editing/EditSubmission.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/n3editing/EditSubmission.java
index d15a3994b..044182820 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/n3editing/EditSubmission.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/n3editing/EditSubmission.java
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ public class EditSubmission {
             		log.debug("time fields for parameter " + var + " were not on form" );
             	}
         	} else if( field.getEditElement() != null ){        	    
-        	    literalsFromForm.putAll( getLiteralForField(var,editConfig,queryParameters));
+        	    log.debug("skipping field with edit element, it should not be in literals on form list");
             }else{
             	String[] valuesArray = queryParameters.get(var); 
                 List<String> valueList = (valuesArray != null) ? Arrays.asList(valuesArray) : null;                
@@ -154,23 +154,39 @@ public class EditSubmission {
         	}
         }
         
+        processEditElementFields(editConfig,queryParameters);
+        
+        if( log.isDebugEnabled() )
+            log.debug( this.toString() );
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Get the literals for the field using the field's special editElement.
-     * @param var
-     * @param editConfig
-     * @param queryParameters
-     * @return
-     */
-    private Map<? extends String, ? extends Literal> getLiteralForField(
-            String var, EditConfiguration editConfig,
-            Map<String, String[]> queryParameters) {
-        Field field = editConfig.getField(var);
-        EditElement ee = field.getEditElement();
-        return ee.getLiterals(var, editConfig, queryParameters);
+    protected void processEditElementFields(EditConfiguration editConfig, Map<String,String[]> queryParameters ){
+        for( String fieldName : editConfig.getFields().keySet()){
+            Field field = editConfig.getFields().get(fieldName);
+            if( field != null && field.getEditElement() != null ){
+                EditElement element = field.getEditElement();                
+                log.debug("Checking EditElement for field " + fieldName + " type: " + element.getClass().getName());
+                
+                //check for validation error messages
+                Map<String,String> errMsgs = 
+                    element.getValidationMessages(fieldName, editConfig, queryParameters);
+                validationErrors.putAll(errMsgs);
+                                
+                if( errMsgs == null || errMsgs.isEmpty()){                    
+                    //only check for uris and literals when element has no validation errors
+                    Map<String,String> urisFromElement = element.getURIs(fieldName, editConfig, queryParameters);
+                    if( urisFromElement != null )
+                        urisFromForm.putAll(urisFromElement);
+                    Map<String,Literal> literalsFromElement = element.getLiterals(fieldName, editConfig, queryParameters);
+                    if( literalsFromElement != null )
+                        literalsFromForm.putAll(literalsFromElement);
+                }else{
+                    log.debug("got validation errors for field " + fieldName + " not processing field for literals or URIs");
+                }
+            }            
+        }        
     }
-
+    
     public EditSubmission(Map<String, String[]> queryParameters, EditConfiguration editConfig, 
     		Map<String, List<FileItem>> fileItems) {
     	this(queryParameters,editConfig);