[Patternfly] How to indicate Optional form fields?

[Matt Carrano]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for raising this issue.  As it so happens, I'm currently in the
process of re-writing our forms guidelines on PatternFly and I agree that
our current recommendations are somewhat incomplete.  I welcome any input
or ideas you have and I also would be interested in seeing how others may
have addressed this problem.

Thanks,

Matt

On Thu, Mar 2, 2017 at 5:48 AM, Andres Galante <agalante at redhat.com> wrote:

> Hi Jonathan, I completely agree it seems silly to mark almost every line
> with the *.
>
> Using "optional" as a placeholder brings some undesired side effects. for
> example, if a user wants to have a placeholder as a hint, then the optional
> will have a conflicts. Also if the input is complete the placeholder would
> disappear. Therefore we can't recommend using optional as a placeholder as
> a universal solution for patternfly.
>
> Maybe we should revisit this recommendation and try to find a better
> solution for mostly mandatory fields.
>
> Would you be able to work on it and propose a solution?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andrés
>
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 8:46 PM, Jonathan Yu <jawnsy at redhat.com> wrote:
>
>> Hey PatternFlyers!
>>
>> We have a form that consists mostly of required fields, with a few
>> optional fields.  It seems silly to mark all required fields with an
>> asterisk (*) as it's 80%+ of the fields, but I can't figure out the correct
>> style to get the behavior we want.
>>
>> I was using <span class="text-muted">(Optional)</span> to indicate these
>> fields, but the PatternFly Forms guidance recommends against it:
>>
>> Required field: Required fields should be denoted with an * (asterisk)
>>> symbol.
>>> Due to responsiveness issues, we do not recommend labeling optional
>>> fields with “(optional)”
>>>
>>
>> See the Design tab of http://www.patternfly.org/patt
>> ern-library/forms-and-controls/forms/#/design (aside: why can't we link
>> directly to the Design tab?)
>>
>> I came across a blog, which recommends using something that looks
>> somewhat like a placeholder: https://blog.patternfly.org/required-fields/
>> - Design A1, which is labelled as the Recommended way to do things. Does
>> anyone know what CSS class I need for this? (the little "optional" text in
>> the inputs there)
>>
>>
>>
>> Currently we're using standard input placeholders, but I don't think this
>> is the best use of them (they seem better used for syntax hints) - see the
>> Middle Initial input:
>>
>>
>> ​​
>> "Greeting" is also optional but I'm not sure the best way to indicate
>> that?
>>
>> --
>> Jonathan Yu / Software Engineer, OpenShift by Red Hat / 140-character
>> rants 'n raves <https://twitter.com/jawnsy>
>>
>> *“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail
>> better.”* — Samuel Beckett
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Patternfly at redhat.com
>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/patternfly
>>
>>
>
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>
>


-- 
Matt Carrano
Sr. Interaction Designer
Red Hat, Inc.
mcarrano at redhat.com
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