A validation rule can appear in a form’s rule list and still be invalid if a required setting inside it is missing. In a form-builder incident described by architect Naveen Alavilli, a Required rule could be added without choosing whether it meant strict Required or Semirequired. The editor did not catch the incomplete choice until the author tried to save.
How the rule looked complete but was not
Alavilli describes a form builder organized into forms, tabs, sections, and questions. Each question had a type and a list of validations. Selecting Required opened a second dropdown with two choices: Required or Semirequired. That second dropdown had no default.
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As a result, the validation could appear on a question even though its subtype was still null. After configuring roughly fifteen questions, Alavilli tried to save and received the error 'Required' validation type is required for each affected question. The account appears in his DEV Community article, which displays a September 23 posting date; the year is not established in the article text. Read Alavilli’s account.
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Why the error waited until save
The underlying ambiguity was in the data: a null subtype could mean either “Not configured yet” or “Configured to nothing.” The system had no way to distinguish an editor temporarily in the middle of a choice from a finished rule that was invalid. It therefore waited until submission to decide whether the configuration was complete. The error was accurate, but it arrived late, after the author had configured many questions.
This illustrates an important distinction: checking that a validation entry exists is not enough. The entry can be structurally present while semantically incomplete because a required parameter is absent. As Alavilli puts it, “Configuration is code without a compiler.” A useful schema-design question is: “what is the set of rows this table can hold that no author would ever have meant?”
Three ways to prevent or expose the incomplete state
Represent the valid choices as separate rules
If the complete set of valid outcomes is strict Required and Semirequired, model them as separate rules rather than as a Required rule with a nullable subtype. This removes the missing-subtype state when those really are the only valid choices. The tradeoff is that this changes how the rule is represented; Alavilli’s account offers no implementation details or comparative measurements.
Set a default deliberately
A default prevents the rule from being left without a subtype, but it also makes a product decision on the author’s behalf. Alavilli considers strict Required the conservative default because it may reject data that a more permissive setting would allow. That is a design judgment, not a universal safety rule: the right default depends on the product’s business rules and what users expect.
Flag incomplete configuration during editing
A system can preserve a temporary null state while a user is choosing, then mark the rule incomplete as soon as the user leaves it. Alavilli suggests showing an error marker when focus leaves a half-configured rule. That can bring feedback forward without changing the underlying data model, though his account does not report implementing or testing this approach.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to choose among the options
Start by asking whether an incomplete state must exist while someone edits. If it does not, representing only valid combinations can prevent the problem at its source. If it does, decide whether a safe default is genuinely safe for the product, or whether the editor should make the unfinished state visible before submission.
- Few, fixed valid combinations: separate rules can make invalid combinations unrepresentable.
- A clearly safe choice: a default can remove an extra decision, but only when its behavior matches users’ expectations.
- Meaningful in-progress configuration: retain the partial state and give immediate, clear feedback when it remains incomplete.
- Higher schema-change cost: an editor-level warning may be a smaller intervention, though it does not itself change which states the data model can hold.
The incident is one architect’s experience, not evidence that this failure is common across form builders or that one remedy is best for every system. Its practical lesson is narrower: when a rule has required settings, design both the stored states and the editing experience so that “present” cannot be mistaken for “complete.”
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