How to not require a required input

I have a Building that is associated with a User. A User can also register, login, etc. I have my validation set so that key User fields (e.g. email, name, etc.) are required.

When I create a building, I'm also offering the ability to associate a user on the spot. My building form has inputs for that key user info:

<?php echo $this->Form->input( 'User.first_name' ) ?>
<?php echo $this->Form->input( 'User.last_name' ) ?>
<?php echo $this->Form->input( 'User.email' ) ?>

However, I don't want those inputs to be indicated as required b/c I want the user to be able to create a Building without necessarily creating aUser` record. What I can't find a way to do is to remove the required class from the div that is being put there by the validation rule.

I've tried various combinations of 'required' => false and setting the class value, but nothing has worked so far. Is there a good way to un-require a form input?

Thanks.

I guess this has been a-long-time-comin', but here is the "correct" way to make an input element not required (at least in Cake 2.4.1):

echo $this->Form->input('studentid', array(
    'label' => __('Student ID'),
    'required' => false
));

Simply pass 'required' => false.

I really wish I could say I knew how to trigger this behavior automatically, but modifying my models doesn't seem to affect the automatically-generated <input> elements. I'll update this post if/when I figure it out.

I had the same problem and this worked for me (tested in Cake 1.2 but I'm sure it will translate to 1.3)

1. Add a "norequire" class to your label :

   echo $this->Form->input( 'User.first_name', array('label'=>array('class'=>'norequire','text'=>'First Name') ));
   

2. In your CSS, set up the norequire class:

   form .required label.norequire { font-weight:normal;  }
   form .required label.norequire:after { content:'';  }
   

(The "form .required" part was important for overriding cakes's default css for the required class. )

This should do it:

echo $this->Form->input('User.first_name',
                        array('div' => array('class' => 'input text')));

Alternatively, you could unset the required rule in the controller just for that view, but be careful with the results:

unset($this->User->validate['first_name']['ruleName']['required']);

I'm surprised that deceze's solution didn't work for me (maybe I just did something wrong), but I ended up having to use Javascript to "manually" remove the required class from each field's containing div.

I ended up by manually adding the division. Not very graceful but it works:

<?php if ($this->Form->isFieldError('first_name')) { ?>
    <div class="input text error">
<?php } else { ?>
    <div class="input text">
<?php }
    echo $this->Form->input('first_name', array('div' => false)); ?>
</div>

$("#idOfYourTag").attr("required","false");

This works for me

I Still haven't found a 'proper' answer for this, but as a quick hack you can just try not using the form helper and throw the code in yourself

<?php
//echo $this->Form->input( 'User.first_name' )
//echo $this->Form->input( 'User.last_name' )
//echo $this->Form->input( 'User.email' )
echo "<div class='input text'><label for='User_first_name'>First Name</label>
      <input name='data[User][first_name]' maxlength='50' type='text' id='User_first_name'/></div>";
echo "<div class='input text'><label for='User_last_name'>Last Name</label>
      <input name='data[User][last_name]' maxlength='50' type='text' id='User_last_name'/></div>";
echo "<div class='input text'><label for='User_email'>Username</label>
      <input name='data[User][email]' maxlength='50' type='text' id='User_email'/></div>";
?>