Validation / Checking for required Values

[Nihon]

Hi Brendan,

thank you for your great app. A joy to work with.

Are there any plans to include (simple) form validation rules or at least checking for required fields? Thanks!

Timo

[Brendan]

Hello Nihon,

I’m glad you’re enjoying Tap Forms. I’m also very sorry for the very delayed response.

At the moment there’s no validation as you’ve discovered. Providing validation with Tap Forms could be a bit tricky since there isn’t really a global save button on a per record basis. That is, you don’t go into Edit mode, then enter your data, then save. You save the values as you enter them. If I offered validation at that level, then you wouldn’t be able to exit the field without entering in some data which you might prefer to enter in at some later time.

If I did add validation, how would you expect that to function? Would there have to be a global Save button to save all values and then highlight the ones that are missing? Or would it simply mark each field in red or with a warning icon to indicate the field is required. But what would the consequence of not filling in the data be? You can’t create a new record? You can’t leave that record and go onto another one?

Just some things to think about.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Nihon]

Hi Brendan,

thank you for your reply. I would definitely opt for “soft” validation, i.e. by coloring missing or invalid inputs red or with exclamation marks behind the inputs.

“Hard” validation, disallowing record saving is – as you describe imo correctly – not user friendly (at least on a mobile device).

Validation should assist the user not to forget critical information on a mobile device – it should not enforce strict rules (e.g. as seen on many Windows desktop apps).

The app should be for data collection and data browsing (not for accounting if you know what I mean).

Kind regards

Timo

[Brendan]

Hello Timo,

Excellent information. I agree with your ideas. It would make validation really just a suggestion that certain fields are deemed required for completeness sake. The same idea would be required fields on a paper based form. There’s nothing stopping you from NOT filling out required fields. But then again, you could always just manually colour the text label yourself as an indicator that a field is required. Maybe all required fields are in red? You can do that now with Tap Forms already.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Nihon]

Hi Brendan,

thank you for the feedback. Setting a required field’s label to red is a good idea. It would be great if the label color would change to “normal” automatically if the value a is entered by the user as this visual feedback allows the user to see if he missed something.

Keep up the good work!

Kind regards

Timo

[Brendan]

There being a value in the field next to the label is a pretty good indicator that the value was entered too. You could also add a section header at the top saying something like “Fields in Red are required”. And colour that red too!

[Roo]

I would like a simple validation option to be able to set a field contents to a unique value only to avoid entering the same record twice. I find I cannot rely on the auto increment option to number my records because over time it resets itself and my database may not have all records in sequence because some have been removed. It is therefore difficult to know which numbers have been used so a simple unique field option would help a lot.

[LeoC2]

Brendan, I was looking to see if any discussion was started on required fields and lo and behold here it is! Search really can be your best friend at times.

So… what about flagging a field with a toggle at setup to set it required or not. If it’s required perhaps set the field label to red or perhaps an image such as a red arrow pointing at the empty field which goes away when filled in? This all still allows TF to perform as it does now but simply is a nudge to the person filling in the form to be sure to enter the required fields.

This brings up another question… I have several fields that have maximum values, FormConnect allows minimum and maximum values to be set, can’t you do the same? Right now I get around the problem of accidentally entering a disallowed value by offering a pick list.

Leo

[Brendan]

Hello Leo,

Thanks for the feature request for required, minimum, and maximum field values. Why can’t I do this? I can. I just haven’t had time to write every feature that everyone has requested yet. But I’m working my way through them as best and as quickly as I can.

Thanks!

Brendan

[LeoC2]

Brendan, any progress on being able to set fields to “required?” It would be very helpful!

Leo

[Brendan]

Hi Leo,

Nothing yet. Too busy working on the Couchbase migration.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Brett VanderPlaats]

Yes, these features would be nice, I might add that if a user save a form without required field being endtered, then not only should it turn red as described above. But in list views the record itself should be flagged as having incomplete values. Being mobile, I appreciate that there is a “hard” required field as explained.

[Genaro Costa]

Brendan, these features would be great. I would like to have ‘hard’ required fields. Any progress?

Genaro

[Brendan]

Hi Genaro,

Not on this one, sorry. It’s still on my radar though. It’ll probably be one of those things that suddenly shows up one day.

Brendan

[brieann chapple]

Is this an option now? We’re trying to decide which software to use and this would make everything easier. Both for my customers and employees. Thanks!

[Brendan]

Hi Brieann,

Yes, Tap Forms does have a Required Field option now. But it mostly just highlights the field red and displays a message when you haven’t filled in the value when you click the Save button after editing a record.

Thanks,

Brendan

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