[SOLVED] Connection field validation (possibly using CB Auto Action)

That is a bug in CB Auto Actions that I provided a quickfix for.

Well that was not clear from the mentionned post. Now it is.

By the way, on inspecting source I noticed a bug: on frontend profiles connection types are listed with a blank entry (I can't provide an image, attachment capability seems broken).

The fix is easy. In components/com_comprofiler/comprofiler.html.php around line 1690, replace by

That's not a bug, it's working as intended. Users are not forced to giving a user a connection type, it's purely optional.

That's not a bug, it's working as intended.

No it is. You select/deselect connections types with CTRL pressed, as indicated by the explainatory text above.
Thus if you want no connection type, you just CTRL+Select the existing ones. This is the standard way multi-select works on this planet.

The unnamed blank entry only yields confusion.

If you fix the Attachments capability I could provide images. :S

The blank makes it easier to select no connection type. It's perfectly acceptable to have a blank in a multi-select to make it easier. Again, not a bug and working as intended.

Even if you select it along with all other connection types the blank is completely ignored on display (mouseover of connection avatar) so it has no negative display effects and allows the enduser to quickly and easily select no connection type for a user.

Another example is navigate to profile edit with a multiselect that is not required and it'll have the blank too. This is normal and is web standard (it's understood as a value is not required, otherwise selecting no value is a pain for the end user).

There are enough studies available to show the average user does not understand multi-select ctrl/shift selecting very well (they usually click and drag). So deselecting all in favor of empty is hard for them (which is why a blank value is always best to be supplied).

Ideally we want to improve this and change it to a more intuitive system (maybe dropdown with checkboxes, etc..) in a later release as we plan to redo CB Connections completely. At any rate you don't want it and your edit removes it so issue is basically resolved for you which is perfectly fine as that's what being open source is all about.

Attachments are only broken in FF 18 I believe and is a Kunena bug. Attachments seam to work fine in Chrome, Safari, IE, etc..

Kyle

This matter is not so important, is it?

Nevertheless...

It's perfectly acceptable to have a blank in a multi-select to make it easier

We need to poll this! :S
More seriously, it would be acceptable if "blank" would be replaced be "none" or some equivalent word. To the many users I have, it just looks like a bug.

There are enough studies available to show the average user does not understand multi-select ctrl/shift selecting very well

A good thing would be your source. But the explanatory is there to help, isn't it?

At any rate you don't want it and your edit removes it so issue is basically resolved for you which is perfectly fine as that's what being open source is all about.

Yes and no. Some core edit features of mine do improve things for a general common usage. This is why I make them public, and suggest you adopt them, with the side advantage that repatching updates is no more necessary. Your decision, of course.

Thanks for your other explainations.