Thread

How do I setup a required dropdown field? If I use Select Dropdown custom field and fill it with options it’s automatically selects the first item. How do I leave a blank space and get an error if I haven’t selected anything from the dropdown?

Thanks

I do not know if this will help, but have you considered making the first item a small period “.”?

To set a default value in the dropdown you can do this:

<option selected="selected" value="">-- Choose --</option>

Change “—Choose—” to whatever you want.  As for making it a required field, I am not sure that is possible since a dropdown always has a value by its very nature.  You could use some Javascript to check that it is not set to the default value.

Hi julzmon,

This is not possible with the default Select field. You can certainly create a Fieldtype to enable this functionality though. Shall I move this thread to the Development & Programming forum so that you can get some community input into this?

Cheers

Greg

I actually figured it out with a little help from Pixel & Tonic.
If you use their P&T Dropdown fieldtype and give the first line 4 spaces. Actually you can also create optgroup by leaving no space for title and 4 spaces before the option.

i.e.

Title
    One
    Two
Title2
    One
    Two

Hi, julzmon. Glad you found a solution.. Don’t hesitate to post again as needed.