People - Field Validation | Activating Save & Errors

Attendees

Alex, Joanne, Ashley, Steve

Purpose

to propose a consistent way forward in creation and editing of fields, particularly for People records

Field Behaviour Discussion

• users should be able to save per section, as is currently available
• the save button should become available when any data edited
  • implementation would be similar to saving a draft, which can be done through saving in a separate table (X), saving in the same table with a different end point (?), saving changes in browser (X), saving changes in server (?), however they all carry the challenges of concurrent editing << further discussion required
• if no edits are made, they can exit the record, as currently available
• validation messages should be presented on page load, in red
• partial fixes would be desirable, which can be engineered as an add on
• having the save button available and presenting errors on click would be more work for the users, in comparison to the above option
• error messaging can be made as bespoke as necessary, specific to the type of error
• different error types can have different error messages
• consistency would be desirable
• concurrent editing
  • it would be useful to understand how much of a risk this could become
  • wait and see if this becomes a problem
  • the save lock down is per section of a person record, or any other component
• needs adequate wording to let the user know what is wrong and at appropriate moments
• any changes currently saved will be lost, it’s possible to engineer a solution to keep the changes but would requires more analysis / effort, possibly post MVP requirement
• there needs to be a call out for either (or both) mandatory / optional fields, or guidance text to help users

Proposals / Decisions

1. present errors on screen with mandatory fields in red underlined text
2. specific error text presented per error type
3. guidance information needs to be included in some way
1. for mandatory / non-mandatory fields
2. for concurrent editing to warn the user that any changes they made will not be saved since someone else is editing

Actions

• discussion on drafts & saving changes on concurrent edits