While creating a lot of forms in Forminator, I’m finding a desire, not quite a “need”, for a three-state checkbox. Does anyone else think this would be useful? I’m thinking aloud here as much as asking for enhancements…
This is a very typical scenario: If someone doesn’t check a box, does that mean the answer is No, or that they didn’t answer the question? This is why we have an explicit Null in programming and databases, versus a default of zero, so that we know if the value is actually zero or if there is no data.
With the current tooling we might create checkboxes, and then need to create radio buttons for some options and delete the checkboxes. While this indicates a lack of planning, I think it might be a typical experience.
For a Checkbox, Settings includes a Require option. This can be used for a “I Accept, Approve, Confirm”, or verification of multiple conditions multiple Verification. Outside of that application I don’t think this works for a yes/no verification – am I missing something?
If seems that for a single Checkbox “field”, where there are multiple checkboxes, it would help to have each option be a required pair of radio buttons. So rather than a simple checked/unchecked value, we can force choice of Yes or No, then the Require option has meaning for multi-option check fields.
There are many options here… Yes/No radio, separate checkboxes, a Select dropdown that requires a value. What about a new Field type, like the Name or Address combined types, where each option must be have a user-selected value. Ideally that field would support a choice of control types, allowing us to switch all options within the field to Select, Radio, or Checkbox.
I don’t even know if this is a good idea. We can just create multiple fields to serve our needs, like any other application. I’m just looking for ways to make this UX pattern a little easier to manage.
Opinions welcome. Thanks.
