Solspace Rating - how to use unrated "null" value but still make field required?

Question

With Solspace Rating I'm allowing members to submit ratings in 4 rating fields. However, to some people, not all fields will apply so they can select an "N/A" option for any of the fields as needed. This option has no value ("" not "0") so it doesn't affect rating stats.

I'm using allow_unrated="" to specify that these fields can be submitted with no value. But, I want the fields be be required - meaning they must select a valid rating (1-5) OR the "N/A" option, but they CANNOT select absolutely no option.

The trouble is, the N/A field with null value is equal to selecting nothing, which means Rating's own server-side field validation as well as my client-side form validation script think the field is empty even when it has a valid selection of "N/A".

So as far as I can figure, there's no way to allow unrated fields AND require those fields.

Setting the value of the "N/A" option to 0 is NOT a solution as that is an actual score and therefor pulls down average rating.

Here is some simplified template code for what I'd like to do (this doesn't work):

{exp:rating:form 
    form:class="box write-review validate" 
    form_name="{channel_short_name}" 
    collection="{channel_short_name}" 
    required="rating1|rating2|rating3|rating4" 
    allow_unrated="rating1|rating2|rating3|rating4" 
    allow_duplicates="no" 
    anonymous="no" 
    return="/vendor/rating-thanks/{segment_2}" 
    status="closed" 
}

{select name="rating1"}
{option value=""}-select a rating from 1-5{/option}
{option value="1"}1{/option}
{option value="2"}2{/option}
{option value="3"}3{/option}
{option value="4"}4{/option}
{option value="5"}5{/option}
{option value=""}N/A{/option}
{/select}

{select name="rating2"}
{option value=""}-select a rating from 1-5{/option}
{option value="1"}1{/option}
{option value="2"}2{/option}
{option value="3"}3{/option}
{option value="4"}4{/option}
{option value="5"}5{/option}
{option value=""}N/A{/option}
{/select}

{select name="rating3"}
{option value=""}-select a rating from 1-5{/option}
{option value="1"}1{/option}
{option value="2"}2{/option}
{option value="3"}3{/option}
{option value="4"}4{/option}
{option value="5"}5{/option}
{option value=""}N/A{/option}
{/select}

{select name="rating4"}
{option value=""}-select a rating from 1-5{/option}
{option value="1"}1{/option}
{option value="2"}2{/option}
{option value="3"}3{/option}
{option value="4"}4{/option}
{option value="5"}5{/option}
{option value=""}N/A{/option}
{/select}

{/exp:rating:form}

At present I have to make all the rating fields not required so the form can be submitted with the "N/A" options, but then there's no way to indicate to the member that they have forgotten to select a rating for any of the fields.

Answer 1

An empty value or the absence of a value will trigger the server-side "required" routine. Both your "select a rating" and "N/A" options have the same value and will trigger the error.

Using the required="" parameter in this case will therefore not work in your situation. Users who select "N/A" would trigger the required error, similarly to those leaving the selection on "select a rating".

You might have better luck with a javascript-based validation approach. For example, add an attribute to your "select a rating" option and check, through javascript, if that option is selected. If it is, throw a "required" js error. There is likely a number of approaches to this, and therefore cannot give any fail-safe examples here. Further, giving js code examples here would be outside of the score of this answer.

Answer 2

Here's what I came up with to solve this dilemma:

1. I used a "0" value instead of null on the N/A option values so on my client-side form validation the select boxes could easily be detected as required, and correcly identified as filled in even when the N/A option is selected.

2. Once the form is validated via javascript I ran a function to swap out all "0" values for null before the form is submitted. (I never want to submit a 0 value or it will mess up rating stats/average).

3. Form is then submitted with null values for any rating fields selected as N/A, and I've set those fields as not required in Rating's own required param so the submission is accepted. This means no server-side validation of those ratings fields but it shouldn't matter as it was already validated via javascript.

The result is a form that allows any of those fields to be unrated but also requires those select boxes to have some value selected.