Bypassing validation while still preserving values

[Richard Wallace]

Hey everyone,

I've got a form that has a couple of optional command links on it.  They 
are basically "quick add" buttons so a user can quickly add things to 
drop downs if they aren't there.  When these "quick add" buttons are 
clicked the user is sent to an add page, the user enters the new info 
and is then redirected back to the original page where the new entry is 
selected and all the other data is preserved from before they clicked 
the "quick add" button.  The backing beans involved are request scoped 
and the values filled in before clicking the "quick add" button are 
preserved through the process using the <t:saveState> element. 

I'm trying to get the validation correct. I want all the form elements 
to be required when the user clicks the submit button, but when they hit 
the "quick add" link the validation should be bypassed.   I thought of 
doing this with the immediate attribute set to true on the "quick add" 
command links but if I do that then any data the user entered on that 
page load (contact info type stuff) is lost.  So I kind of need to 
bypass the validation but still update the model values if one of the 
command links are clicked, but have full validation done when the 
command button is pressed.

I was looking at the new OptionalValidation Framework but I'm not sure 
exactly how to apply it in this case.  I mean, what I really want is to 
have the validation type be none when command links are used and hard 
otherwise.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Rich