Required category field inconsistency?
Hi
I created a simple app using multiple category fields in "inline "style in its items.
One thing that I am a bit confused about:
When I set a category field to "required" it selects automatically the first item in the category list when the user clicks on "New Item", if I do not set "required" no item is selected.
I'd expect following behavior: No category item is selected when creating a new app item whether the category field is required or not. If the user does not select a category which is "required" the category is marked red and the user cannot save the item unless he/she selected an item in the category.
Am I right with my assumptions or am i missing something?
Regards¨
Volker
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Official comment
Hi Volker,
Your assumption would be another way to do it, but it's not how the category field is currently designed. If a field is marked as required, the first option will be selected as you said, and can be changed to other fields if they are applicable.
Thank you for the input on an alternate method!
/Joseph – Podio
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Hi Joseph and Volker,
I must admit I had the same feeling as Volker about the way the 'required field' setting handles a category field. By preselecting the first option it looks like as if this option is more important then the others. I would also suggest not to preselect an option. Only a warning if the user tries to save without giving a value. Just like the text/number field are handled.
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Hi Joseph,
But if you see it from my angle: I set a category field to "required" for a reason: The user has to think about the choice he's going to make for this field. If Podio preselects the first item for required fields that additional "push" for the user to make a purposeful decision is taken away.
Volker
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I'd like to +1 Volker here. I'm surprised by this functionality.
I'm trying to require that my user makes a selection, which is different than requiring that a selection exists.
"Is this Category A or B?"
If Podio preselects "Category A"... then the user is not "required" to do anything.
In my case this triggers workflows that I have to unravel... so I end up not using the required button at all. It just messes things up.
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Ben is right: by having the system pre-select the first option, you are essentially negating the whole value of making a field required at all. Thus I'm forced to put all of my categories as not required, even if they are very important.
With required text fields, the user is prompted to select a value, why wouldn't the same logic apply to required category fields? @Podio Team can you please comment on this?
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Ben and Jay, you're are definitely both right that this behaviour is not always the best solution depending on your use case (workflows, webform etc). It is a bit of either / or because on the other hand the default category selection can be very handy in other cases for creating new items with a category field assigned by default (to save time). So if we fix this for your use case other customers would lose the benefit of automatically having categories assigned.
The proper solution would probably be to make it possible for the user to decide the required field behaviour in the app template depending on the use case.
Thanks for your feedback to help us learn more.
//Sara - Podio
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Hi All
Having exactly the same issue here. Podio is fantastic but lets itself down with things like this. What I am thinking of doing is having my first category called "Please select one" (IN RED), this will be the category the form will auto select. If an item is created with any of the category fields containing this I will use globiflow to stop my usual flow and send them a message to fill out the category fields required. Then I'll have a "resubmit item" button on the bottom of the form that will run through the create new item process again but with an update flow instead.
Thanks
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