Improve Validation

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bkonia
Posts: 98
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 4:41 am
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Improve Validation

Post by bkonia »

If you set an attribute to Required, that attribute will be unconditionally required in all forms, regardless of whether or not the field is visible and even if the field does not even appear on the form. This is the correct behavior, since the attribute is a property of its parent object, not a property of the form.

However, there are many times when we need to make fields required on certain forms, without making them required in the underlying attribute. For example, I have a form that's a loan application. The form always has a primary applicant, for which all attributes are required. The form also contains a toggle switch to enable a field group for a co-applicant. If it's enabled, the co-applicant fields should be required. Otherwise, they should NOT be required.

Therefore, I'm requesting the following:

1. The ability to make a form field required, even if the underlying attribute is NOT required.

2. In instances where the attribute is NOT required and the form field IS required, the validation should only take effect when the form field is visible. So, for instance, if you hide a field group by adding a condition to the "Not present when" property, validation would be disabled for fields marked Required at the form level. Likewise, if you hide a required field using READ PROTECT, that field would no longer be required.

I know you can accomplish this using rules, but REPORT ERROR displays ugly dialogs, not elegant inline client-side validation messages. This makes for an inconsistent and amateurish-looking UI experience. In the example I mentioned, the primary applicant fields would display client-side validation messages, while the co-applicant fields would display the validation messages in popup dialogs.

Another approach would be for Aware IM to provide an action like VALIDATION ERROR, which would cancel the form submission and display an inline validation error at the specified field. For example:

If MyObject.MyAttribute = '' Then
VALIDATION ERROR 'You must enter a value for MyAttribute' MyAttribute

The advantage of this approach is it would provide total flexibility to customize your validation messages in terms of their content, location and conditions.
Brad S Konia
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tford
Posts: 4238
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:44 pm

Re: Improve Validation

Post by tford »

I agree with Brad that improvements in this area would add to our flexibility.
Tom - V8.8 build 3137 - MySql / PostGres
PointsWell
Posts: 1457
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 5:51 am
Location: 'Stralya

Re: Improve Validation

Post by PointsWell »

I would also greatly like the ability to apply a business rule to an attribute

Such as:

Code: Select all

IF BO.Attrib1='Yes' THEN BO.Attrib2 IS MANDATORY
and have the red flag appear on the UI.

See also https://www.awareim.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9457
Last edited by PointsWell on Sat May 22, 2021 2:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
BenHayat
Posts: 2749
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:48 am
Location: Fla, USA
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Re: Improve Validation

Post by BenHayat »

I've requested for this feature directly from support several years ago, as it's something I've used in other tools for years by making "required" fields on forms than at object level.

I hope support would implement this, as it is used widely in many business forms.
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