Make allowEmpty work with text type

[wesleywong]

allowEmpty: false
No problem in "dropdown", library will prevent value to be empty but this doesn't work in "text". Please advise.

[
  {
    "data": "id.value",
    "allowInvalid": false,
    "allowEmpty": false
  },
  {
    "data": "name.value",
    "allowInvalid": false,
    "allowEmpty": false
  },
  {
    "data": "condition.value",
    "allowInvalid": false,
    "allowEmpty": false
  },
  {
    "data": "address.value",
    "allowInvalid": false,
    "allowEmpty": false
  }
]

Version: 1.14.1

[AMBudnik]

Hi @wesleywong

the option works only if a cell has a validator. Text cell type doesn't have one. You would need to add additional logic that checks if a cell is empty.

[koolmoo]

Hi,

I've come across the same issue with cell types that do have default validators. It seems that most of the default validators are not checking whether allowEmpty = false and value === "". This results in empty values being valid for all cell types except numeric when allowEmpty is set to false.

I understand we can add our own custom validators, but it doesn't make sense for some of the defaults to ignore this setting and some to follow it. Perhaps they could all perform the following check before doing any further validation:

if (value === '' || value == null) {
  callback(this.allowEmpty);

  return;
}

Please let me know what you think. I can post a separate issue if needed. Thanks!

[AMBudnik]

Hi @koolmoo

we decided that in default an empty string should be valid for all cell types. That is why the allowEmpty: false has been added as a separate setting.

[koolmoo]

Hi @AMBudnik

I'm not sure I understand fully. Currently, the allowEmpty flag defaults to true, which means by default empty values are valid for all cell types.

What I am wondering is why setting it to false does not have a consistent behavior between the cell types. It works on numeric and date/time cells but not on normal or dropdown/autocomplete cells. Also, in the documentation for allowEmpty it states:

If set to false, Handsontable will not accept the empty values and mark cell as invalid.

I understand if it's not a high priority, but I do believe either the behavior should be made consistent, or the documentation should be updated to accurately reflect the behavior. Thanks.

[AMBudnik]

Hi @koolmoo

sorry I did not write it clearly as well.

The dropdown cell type corresponds to allowEmpty: false when we hit DEL or BACKSPACE. Here is an example

http://jsfiddle.net/vbmw6vgj/
And the text cell type doesn't correspond to allowEmpty: false as it doesn't have a validator.

[aaronbeall]

I ran into this and was a bit confused as well. I think @koolmoo makes a good point, even though text doesn't have a validator it doesn't make sense that allowEmpty: false doesn't do anything with text cells, certainly the documentation for allowEmpty does not make that clear. Perhaps text needs a default validator that just considered allowEmpty.

[AMBudnik]

Agree @aaronbeall

opened the issue and changed a title

[mrpiotr-dev]

Hi @wesleywong, @koolmoo, @aaronbeall,
Thank you for your involvement to improve Handsontable!
I convert this issue to the discussion topic in the Ideas section. Here you can continue discussing this improvement.

Psst, don't forget to see #7694 and leave your's welcome 👋 to Handsontable Discussions! 😉

[KiddoV]

Any update on this? When set allowEmpty: false I am still seeing text cell doesn't have validation. Current version v14.2.0.

[adrianszymanski89]

Hi @KiddoV

We have reported it internally, but how this will be solved is unclear. The documentation has an error and should mention that the text cell type doesn't have a default validator, which is obligatory for the allowEmpty option to work. For now, the solution would be to create a custom validator for the text cell type.

[KiddoV]

Got it. Thanks!