Making a conditional field required

A conditional field can be required, but only while it is visible. Understanding that rule prevents forms nobody can submit.

A conditional field can be required, but only while it is visible. Understanding that rule prevents forms nobody can submit.

Make it required

1. In Admin Center, open Objects and rules > Tickets > Forms, hover over the form, click the options menu and select Conditions.
2. Expand the condition that shows the field and click the edit icon.
3. Set the requirement from the dropdown. Besides Always and Never there is a setting per status: When new, When open, When pending, When on-hold and When solved.
4. Click Add or Update, then Save, and test by selecting each value of the driving field in turn.

Per status is the setting that does this. When solved asks for the value at the moment the agent has it, which is the difference between a field people fill in properly and one they fill in to get past the form.

This also runs the other way. The requirement here starts from what the field itself says, and you can clear it, which makes a field that is required everywhere optional on this one form. That is the only way to have one form that does not ask for something the rest of the account insists on.

Required on the field or in the condition

These are two different things and the difference matters.

• Required on the field applies wherever the field appears, on every form.
• Required in the condition applies only when that condition has made it visible.

Marking a conditional field as required at field level is how you produce a form that cannot be submitted: the field is required but hidden, so nobody can fill it in and nobody can see why they are blocked.

Test every branch

Conditions multiply quickly. A form with three driving values needs three tests, not one. Selecting each value and trying to submit takes two minutes and catches the case where a required field never becomes visible.

See also

• Conditional ticket fields
• Showing forms to end users