Having configurable field-level error checking is a good thing, as it helps to keep erroneous data from being entered in the first place. As it is currently implemented however, each user is required to enable this on each form. So, currently, there is no way to administratively enforce this level of error checking, shy of logging as each user, visiting each form and turning it on.
Enabling this level of error checking should be either (1) A global configuration (Enable field-level error checking On-Off), (2) Enabled at Report Type level or (3) At the least, as part of form-level configuration.
That is correct. Do you see a need/value in having this functionality available for Maintenance Items as well?
(If so, I think this warrants a separate Idea to create that configuration functionality)
It appears that the error check only works for reports, not for Maintenance Items?
Thank you for the clarification - was not made aware of the "error check" form. We'll look into it.
The design was originally geared more toward an "error check step", where a user would review the new Error Check form, which also shows all of the validations that failed, along with the configured error message. The field-level highlighting was more of an assistant to help locate offending fields after that step was performed.
All that said, it definitely seems to make sense that the option to view error check highlighting should always default to "On". The only reason I think we should probably keep the option to toggle it off is that other functions occasionally also highlight fields, for example to highlight all fields where files are attached. If the user can't toggle off the warnings/errors, they wouldn't be able to discern those other highlights from the warnings/errors.
Just to clarify, error checking will not actually prevent users from entering incorrect data, but if it's configured to do so, it will prevent the report from progressing through certain/all workflow stages until those data issues are corrected.
Validation is always checked (and enforced if applicable) during workflow stage change actions - that cannot be disabled or overridden by end users.
If the error check definition has workflow stages mapped to it, it will not allow the report to be changed into one of those workflow stages while the validation conditions are violated. The user will receive an error similar to this:
If the definition is not configured to explicitly prevent moving to a certain workflow stage (for instance, if you only want to enforce the check at the time of final approval, not during the initial submission to a team lead, etc.), the report could still be moved to that stage and the check will be treated like a "warning" instead of an error and the warning text will be displayed during the workflow stage change.
The option found on forms is only used to toggle error check highlighting on or off.
I have created an SR. It still appears that error checking is off by default for existing and new reports.
This has been turned on for all users sites that Bentley can access. Those behind firewall/vpn, etc will need turned on manually with an internal account. Please create an SRM if error check is not enabled due to accessibility.
Having this default to ON is pretty much required - I don't really see a reason to allow users to opt-out even.