Select field default <none> not being recognized

Same problem.

The first value of any required "select field" is automatically placed into itself. This is a major problem as these fields in the form will always validate on submission.

I have the same problem, although I am running the latest version of Acquia Drupal (6.16) -- which uses 6.x-2.x-dev for most of CCK's modules.

EDIT: I have just upgraded to 6.x.2.6 and the problem remains.

In this case, the behaviour occurs if one makes the Select Field required. If it is not required then the default value - None - works. But of course the form will validate, and I too want to force users to enter in a value in such fields.

There is a work-around which forces a choice but unfortunately it leaves a blank field. What you do is add | to the top of the Allowed Values list. E.g. for a choice between Male and Female you would insert:

|
Male
Female

Credit goes to: http://drupal.org/node/182946 for this interim solution.

Guys, there is no problem at all... Just use it like (for example):

|Please select required field
Male|Male
Female|Female

It works!

It does indeed work.

I thank you for this. It is a great workaround, and I now understand more about the select lists. :-)

However, I would suggest that there still is a problem that needs to be fixed, unless there are changes to the instructions to say you must put in paired values. The instructions at present say you only need to put a single value list.

Surely, a REQUIRED field setting should not add a default value to a field when you configure the system elsewhere NOT to add a default value to a field.

I was not able to get this working, if nothing is selected then the "Please select required field" is still submitted.

I just created a new module that I think will solve this problem for you: http://drupal.org/project/cck_required_single_select . Let me know what you think!

Re the original post:
Doesn't cck do this automatically when you un-check the 'Required' checkbox for the field? It does for me.

If a select IS NOT REQUIRED then the null value option is handled automatically by cck.
- Then if you want to make sure you have not selected -none- you have to custom validate.
OR
If the select field IS REQUIRED and you want a -none- option then you have to add it yourself in the allowed values (see #4).
- Note that if the field is required I think that the database field is set to not allow NULL values.

Then, with or without the cck-added -none- value the first item is selected.

If yours does not select the first item there is possibly something in the settings of your field and allowed values that is messing it up.

@animelion (#2)
That is just how the select fields work. If you want to force selection you have to do custom validation or add a new cck feature request issue.
-- Changing status, critical is for bugs that break your site or make the module not work. --

@cwebster (#8)
Couldn't the functionality of that new module be added to cck with a feature request patch?
It seems like functionality that should belong in CCK.

Sounds great to me. I'm not sure I know enough to know where to start. Any pointers? I would definitely like to see this in CCK.

Everyone interested in this issue should check out this module CCK Required Single Select http://drupal.org/project/cck_required_single_select

@cwebster
I have not looked into it much but if I get some time I will report back here any findings.

@animelion
That was already mentioned in #8

Thank you @animelion that module saved my afternoon.

I do want to clarify that I think the functionality of the CCK Required Single Select module could be much more cleanly and logically incorporated into CCK itself. My proposal would be to allow users to enter a "special" option value (before the pipe) for a select option that displays, but does not validate. The two examples that come to mind are:

<none>|Text to Display
<disallow>|Text to Display

Also, it would be great if this behavior worked for multiple-value select lists as well. Any thoughts?

Agreed 100%. This functionality should be incorporated in CCK. A required field should require that the user take action, rather than automatically selecting a value as default.

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I believe the solution is per #4, but don't put any text before the pipe character. This will be interpreted as NULL and trigger failed validation.

@cwebster #8 I can confirm that this module does the job, and is also fixing the problem with the -Select- option being listed in View filters.

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I'm seeing this issue also for nodereference types. It's particularly troublesome there, because users who neglect to inspect the field will automatically select the first listed node, which is almost certainly wrong.

To be clear, the relevant (not-uncommon) corner case is when exactly one node must be referenced by the user.

In that case, for the new content form, the select box should start off with a "none" item, which is initially selected, but will not validate.

For an edit content form from an already-validated node, the select box should not include the "none" item.

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