If you want focus to return to the SSN field if the user tabs out or clicks away without filling it in (or enters an invalid format), you'll need to write script.
Acrobat's default behaviour is not to prevent the user from tabbing from one field to the next even if a field's value is marked as "required". Acrobat will, however, prevent the form from being submitted if a field is marked as required and isn't filled.
Acrobat will also prevent a form from being submitted if a field's validation failed and this validation was marked as an "error" instead of a warning.
You have a few options:
1. On the SSN custom object you placed on your form, go into the Object palette's Value tab and set the field's value
Type to
User Entered - Required and set the
Empty Message box that appears to an error message to be displayed if the field is left empty. Upon attempting to submit the form (via email, HTTP, etc.), Acrobat will identify the required field and require that it be filled.
2. Check the
Error check box above the
Validation Pattern Message box on the Object palette's Value tab. This specifies that a validation pattern failure should be treated as an error and will prevent the form from being submitted until the field contains a valid SSN.
3. Write a script, in the SSN object's
Exit event that checks to see if the value of the object is empty (or null if the user has yet to type something in it and is just tabbing over the object) and warns of the empty value and sets the focus back to the SSN object:
if (SSN.rawValue == null || SSN.rawValue == "")
{
app.alert("SSN is required!");
xfa.host.setFocus("SSN");
}
Options 1 and 2 are good if you don't need to verify until form submit time. Option 3 is good if you want to verify immediately.
