1. What is the general goal of the feature?
In circumstances where a note field is used a user may mistakenly enter a required value as true or yes. Consequently, in ODK collect the user is unable to move past the note screen and therefore unable to finalise and submit a form.
2. What are some example use cases for this feature?
See attached XLSformnote_with_required_true.xls (23 KB)
3. What can you contribute to making this feature a reality?
This behaviour could be limited in XLS form offline and online could indicate any note field variables (line or name) where a note field has a required value as true, but doesn't stop the conversion of the form.
@Lal_S The decision on what becomes a warning is @Ukang_a_Dickson's, but I don't think pyxform (the library that powers XLSForm Online/Offline) should warn when notes are required.
Required notes can be useful. For example, I like to use them like a long message to enumerators. It has to be required because they need to swipe back and fix the issue that triggers that note.
@yanokwa Ah, I hadn't thought that notes could be used as required notes. But I can see their use, my initial thoughts were that required fields were only for fields that could accept data entry as indicated in xlsform specification:
Blockquote
It’s simple to mark certain questions as required in your form. Marking them as required means the user will not be able to move on to the next question or submit the form without entering an answer for that question.