Enhance Metadata Entry Validation: Implement Required Fields and Field Restrictions in AtoM

[rcgillis]

Current behaviour: Repositories determine their own mandatory, optional and prohibited metadata for each level of description. AtoM relies on the discretion of the user to enter metadata in the correct fields, which is not always reliable.

Desired behaviour: No required fields should be omitted — and, ideally, no erroneous fields should be employed. Administrators should be able to specify required fields according to their preferences. This is perhaps best done within settings/visible elements, where in addition to selecting the visible elements for the descriptive templates, administrators could indicate whether or not the field is required.

Possible solutions:
• Provide users with a prompt to indicate blank required fields before they are able to save their work. (e.g., highlight necessary fields)
• Block data entry in unnecessary fields (perhaps with an override feature)
• Both of these solutions would be triggered by the level of description, which would have to be the first field entered by the user.