Mandatory checkbox without asterisk

Related products: Universal GUI

When a domain with datatype BIT and control checkbox is not mandatory, there are 3 options:

  • empty (null)
  • selected/active (0)
  • deselected/inactive (1)

When it is mandatory there are 2 options (0 & 1) but an asterisk is shown behind the options. For the user this looks like you have to select the active option. F.e. when you have to agree to an user policy it is obligated to check the checkbox.

 

→ We would like to have a mandatory checkbox without the asterisk so the user does not feel obligated to check the checkbox.

Hi, 

Thanks for submitting this idea.

Would it be an option to only show the asterisk if the checkbox is null by default?


@Jasper If I understand you correctly: that would mean we don't see the asterisk if we set the default value to be 0?

Then your suggested solution definitely sounds like the right solution for a mandatory checkbox, as a default null value on a mandatory checkbox would mean it requires a 0 or a 1 upon save (in other words: a user action).


@Jasper In addition to the asterisk the checkbox itself is also highlighted in red. This should also not happen in your suggested solution. Any idea when we could expect a fix on this one?


@Bart Metselaar Is this on your radar?


Hi, 

Thanks for submitting this idea.

Would it be an option to only show the asterisk if the checkbox is null by default?

Hi @jasper,  we have been fiddling with this as well. The point here is that the mandatory status is partly functional. 

  • I can have a mandatory wish where a user has to select active/inactive, so the default state is NULL. 
  • But not uncommon is that a checkbox is a confirmation, where the default usually is 0 and then you want to ask the user to consciously accept whatever you are proposing, so the mandatory GUI element is for drawing attention to accepting for example an agreement. 

The point here is that in the latter you cannot make a distinction.. we have for example a check-list.. where by default nothing is done..  and here we don't want the red highlight,, but we also don't want to have a NULL value (so we make the field mandatory).  But we also have a check box where we aks the user to ‘check’ it for being complete, here we do want the red highlight.. 

I would opt for a model-based solution where you in the domain settings for example can choose if you have a mandatory choice (default state is NULL) or a mandatory accept (default state = 0) .

 


Thanks for the heads up @Arie V .

I’ll also have to take @Freddy ‘s ideas into the equation.


@Mark Jongeling Could this Idea be assigned to the Universal GUI too?


OpenWorking on it!

This is resolved in the 2023.1.13 release which is released on the 24th of Februari as a beta release and a week later as an official release.

We've chosen to only show the mandatory indicator when the mandatory checkbox columns value is set to NULL. The NULL value is displayed with the indeterminate state of the checkbox.

After the user selects another value, the mandatory indicator disapears again and the checkbox can only be checked or unchecked.

 

So, when a record is edited and the checkbox column(s) already contain a value, no mandatory indicator will be shown anymore.


Working on it!Completed

@Erik Brink Great this is added in the next Release! This solution works for us, let’s hope it works for @Freddy’s scenarios too.


@Freddy One thing I was thinking for your scenario: you could add a Domain input constraint and/or a Check constraint to only allow 1 on the checkbox and return an error message to the user if they use 0.


@Freddy One thing I was thinking for your scenario: you could add a Domain input constraint and/or a Check constraint to only allow 1 on the checkbox and return an error message to the user if they use 0.

hi @Arie V

maybe my wish will be granted in the future :) 

However this is a good start, my scenario of the checklist can have other visualisations to get a user to mark all the ticks 🙂 ..  but the point I made a about a field being mandatory .. depending how input formats for example will be made available this discussion will become active again 🙂 ..  because the ‘0’ in the scenario is basically an input mask.. where by default the task of the checklist hasn't been done.. and you want the user to mandatory set it to 1. 

I think the input constraint idea will cause a very unfriendly User experience. 

But thanks for the pro-activity here :)