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I spend the whole day trying to understand what are the differences between setting a column as "Require that this column contains information" = Yes inside the column definition, and setting it as required inside the content type. and i came with these observations :-

  1. IF a Column is defined as Require inside the column definition and optional inside the content type, then I will get these behavior:-

    • On the Create/Edit built-in forms NO required symbol will be shown beside the column “*”, But an error message will be shown ,if you leave the column empty when you try to add/edit items.

    • While inside the quick edit grid it will show an error that the field is required.

  2. While If a Column is defined as Optional inside the column definition & Required inside the content type, then I will get the following behavior:-

    • On the Create/Edit built-in forms a required symbol will be shown beside the column “*” and error message will be shown, if you leave the column empty when you try to add/edit items, which sound valid.

    • While inside the quick edit you can add/edit new item and leave the column empty.

So based on the above seems that the built-in edit/create forms will check if the column is required inside the content type CT and inside the column definition. while in the quick edit case I need to set the column as required inside the column definition ,, because quick edit will ignore the setting inside the CT .

So can anyone advice if the above is correct ? and will always be the case ?

In other words , this is the case:-

  • Built-in create/edit forms >> Rely on Content type & Site definition to check is a column is required or optional. but will only show "*"symbol if the column is defined as required inside the CT.

  • Quick Edit grid >> Rely only on column definition to check is a column is required or optional, and will totally ignore the CT settings.

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  • what do you need this for?
    – Gwny
    Jun 18, 2015 at 11:44
  • @Gwny i am trying to understand how SP deals with checking if a column is required or not inside the forms & quick edit grid , as seems there are different places where u can defined if a column is required or optional
    – John John
    Jun 18, 2015 at 11:59
  • Did you find any answer to this? I'm having the same problem right now as I can add items in quick edit even though a column which is marked as required in the CT does not contain any information.
    – André
    Aug 28, 2015 at 6:34

1 Answer 1

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I was stuck with this today. I set the Content Type to optional and then tried to edit an existing item, but I kept getting the message:

You must specify a value for this field

But there was no " * " (mandatory sign) indicating the field is required.

I had to change the column setting that is normally set at creation. The option is "Require that this column contains information:", but is only available at column creation in the list settings.

To change this open up SharePoint Designer and follow these steps:

  1. Open the specific site
  2. Click Lists and Libraries
  3. Select the specific library/list
  4. Under Customization click Edit list columns
  5. Right click the column in question and select Column Settings. A Column Editor window will pop-up.
  6. There is a check-box named Allow blank values
  7. Select it and save.

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