How to make a Picklist field required in Visualforce Page with inline Edit

Question

Well this initially seemed very simple but came out to be a disaster. If you are using a inputfield this is pretty easy just use the required="true" attribute and you are good go.

But I was a bit surprised there are no option to mark a PICKLIST field required when using inlineEditSupport basically there is no required attribute for the outfield tag which we generally use for inlineEdit. I did a lot of research on this topic but couldnt find a solution.

<apex:outputField value="{!MyObject__c.MyPicklist__c}" >
       <apex:inlineEditSupport event="ondblclick"/>
</apex:outputField>

I know there are workarounds like

1. Using a validation rule to throw an error and handle the same in apex to show a pagemessage
2. Or simply use apex to show pageMessage
3. Use jQuery/JS

I am just wondering if there any other way ? something like marking required in VF

Answer 1

You could do the formatting in VF-only, but it will also show while not in edit-mode:

 <apex:outputLabel value="picklistLabel"/>
 <apex:outputPanel layout="block" styleClass="requiredInput">
     <apex:outputpanel layout="block" styleClass="requiredBlock"/> 
     <apex:outputField value="{!MyObject__c.MyPicklist__c}" >
        <apex:inlineEditSupport event="ondblclick"/>
     </apex:outputField>
</apex:outputPanel>

Note that you should still do the Validation with a validation rule, as this is merely a layout change.