I would like to define a component as optionally required (based on another field's value)

Question

I built two custom components using built-in CQ components. The components' JSP's, along with some custom javascript, have a line like below in order to leverage the built-in components (and their formatting, labels, etc.).

<cq:include path="." resourceType="foundation/components/form/dropdown" />

I have one each of my custom dropdown components on a form. I can mark field A and field B as both being required in their respective components' editor dialog. I can provide required messages so that when either field is blank and the form is submitted, I get a message that the fields are required (with my custom messages). However, what I really want to do is hide or disable field B based on the value supplied in field A. I'm handling this manually via jQuery. However, this of course presents a problem on validation. I want field B to be NOT required when it is hidden/disabled and for it to be required when it is enabled/visible. Since the showing/hiding is done client-side, the server-side validation has know knowledge of the change and still expect a value to be provided for field B.

I'm been trying to poke around in the CQ Widgets API to find if there is something I can do on the client side to set/unset the required property so that when the form gets posted it is handled correctly. I'm guessing that there isn't since the validation seems to be happening on post instead of client-side.

Any ideas/thoughts/options?

Answer 1

It turns out that the link from my comment gave me the idea that I can have custom server-side validation for my form, I just wasn't sure how to connect it to the field. It turns out that all I had to do was create a servervalidation.jsp file in my "B" component. CQ will see the servervalidation.jsp and automatically invoke it for my custom component.

I was then able to examine the submitted value of field "A" (by getting the parameter from the request object) and doing some other custom logic for my needs.

I was then able to optionally do this:

FieldDescription field = FieldHelper.getConstraintFieldDescription(slingRequest);
FieldHelper.checkRequired(slingRequest, field);