[SOLVED] Select options field with preselected options and without being required

[AndZyk]

Hello,

a client wanted to have the option to activate/deactivate two buttons on a page. But the default behaviour should be that both buttons are activated.

So I have added a select options field with two options, which control if the buttons are visible or not.
Now I can set both options to be preselected, but in order to makes this work, the field has to be required.
But I don't want this to be a required field, because pages also should have the option to show no buttons.

I honestly don't understand what's the reason, why this field has to be required, in order to show preselected options.

Now I could add a third option "No buttons" or flip the logic to use this field for hiding butttons or I could use a hook for preselecting the options. But I am not sure which hook to use.
But I hope there is a more elegant solution.

Had somebody else this case before? I think this should be a common case.

Regards, Andreas

[AndZyk]

I have figured out which hook suits my case and decided to pre-select the options with the pages added hook:

// Hook after page added
$this->addHookAfter('Pages::added', function(HookEvent $event) {
    $page = $event->arguments(0);
    if ($page->template->name === "job") {
        // Pre-select job buttons
        $page->setAndSave("jobButtons", [1, 2]);
    }
});

But I find this solutions still not very satisfying, because I think it should be possible to pre-select options without having the field to be required. Unless there is a reason behind, that I am not able to see. 

[bernhard]

34 minutes ago, AndZyk said:

But I find this solutions still not very satisfying, because I think it should be possible to pre-select options without having the field to be required. Unless there is a reason behind, that I am not able to see. 

I agree it's not the best UX, but have a read here: https://processwire.com/talk/topic/14979-why-is-a-value-required-to-pre-check-checkboxes/?do=findComment&comment=134243

I think that makes sense and your Pages::added hook seems to be a good solution as it's the only other possible option that ryan mentioned.

PS: If you are using custom page classes you can make it a MagicPage and then it's simply this:

  public function onCreate()
  {
    $this->youroptions = [1, 2];
  }

 

[AndZyk]

Thank you @bernhard for pointing me to this thread. This explains why this behaviour is necessary, although I wish it wouldn't. 😀

Then I will stick to my hook solution, if this is a recommended solution for this case.

So far I haven't used custom page classes, but thanks for the hint.