[Required()]

Patrik Nordlund

Vote:

I'm building a site in EPiServer 7 currently. Really nice actually. But one thing puzzles me. When a new page is created, only properties that are set as "[Required ()]" are visible in the form. All non-required fields are hidden untill page is created.

This makes it somewhat disconcerting to users who then have to:
1. Create a Page
2. Start wondering .. is this right!? Properties are missinge!?
3. Then go to the editing interface for adding additional - not required - fields.

Is there a way to continue to have certain properties required but still show ALL of the properties when creating a new page.

#69506

Mar 26, 2013 13:00

Joel Abrahamsson

Vote:

There isn't any way to do that out-of-the-box. In theory you could extend the edit UI but I wouldn't recommend going that route as you'll have to replace/extend key components in the CMS.

From my perspective required fields should be things that are absolutely needed for the content to make sense and function and as such they tend to be limited to types such as PageReference/ContentReference, integers and the likes. When that's the case and there's only a few fields I think it's pretty obvious for editors that this is a step needed in order to create the page and that they will be able to work with the "real" content later.

If on the other hand things like main body text is made required I think it quickly becomes confusing for editors, not to mention that they can't edit it with preview support.

So, my advice would be to use required only when it either helps editors to remember vital properties that aren't obvious and for properties that are needed for technical reasons.

My 5 cents :)

#69507

Mar 26, 2013 13:29

Patrik Nordlund

Vote:

Thanks for the quick reply. Hmmm ... I realize when I read your post that I since the time with CMS 6 has begun (ab)using "Reuired" slightly. I understand what you mean and I agree with you completely. I just have to consider and get rid of the bad habit.

#69538

Mar 26, 2013 22:15