Must select before submit "Approval"

hi @Mic Wang ,

This is not possible in the way you suggest. You can however prevent going to the approval state if a certain field (e.g. 'supervisor') is not filled.

Hello @Mic Wang , 

@Rudy Holtkamp is right, I will give you the exact mechanics behind his sentence, because I think it explains why your workflow attempts failed.

Why it fails where you put it. The Approve and Decline buttons on the portal do not run workflow validators. So a validator on the approval transition itself (the one the Approve button fires) is silently skipped, and the approval goes through with the supervisor field empty. That is the attempt that "does not work."

Where it works. Put the gate on the transition into the status that carries the approval, not on the approval transition. In the workflow editor, open the transition that moves the request from its previous status (say "Waiting for support" or "Awaiting supervisor") to your approval status, and add a validator:

• if the supervisor selection is a work item field (a user picker or select on the request type), use the Field required validator naming that field;
• if it is a form field, use the Forms: Specific form submitted validator, which Atlassian's KB recommends for exactly this (add a validator on forms via workflow or automation).

The Approve button only exists once the request is in the approval status, and the request cannot enter that status until the field or form is complete. Mandatory, without touching the transition that ignores validators.

Two details that catch people:

1. Whoever moves the request into the approval status must be able to fill the field; if that is the supervisor on the portal, the field or form has to be visible and editable there (a form attached to the request works; a hidden work item field does not).
2. If an automation rule moves the request into the approval status, the validator applies to the rule too, so the rule's actor gets the failure in the audit log. That is useful, because it tells you the gate is doing its job.

The full pre-approval design, with the automation that attaches the form and transitions on submission, is in my reply on your earlier thread, so I will not repeat it here, this answer is the workflow half of it.