Remove field validation and make field optional in the form

Question

Is there a way to validate form fields, that should remain "optional" (not required)?

Even if I set "required" to false in both cases (required or not), Magento nags at the optional field, when it is left empty (and there is a red "*", which marks a required field):

        <?= $block->isRequired() ?
            ' data-validate=\'{"required":false, "validate-custom-whatever":true}\'' :
            ' data-validate=\'{"required":false, "validate-custom-whatever":true}\''
        ?>

So, it seems to me, that there is no way to validate optional fields, without adding an extra case to the validator, like so (pseudocode):

if(value == '')
{
    return true
}
else
{
    // do validation and return true or false - depending on the validation result
}

Is this really the correct way, of doing it? Or is there a more beautiful "Magento way" of doing this?

Answer 1

Actually, Magento allows you to validate optional fields. You can do this as follows (for example):

<input type="text" data-validate='{"letters-only":true}' />

As you can see, you don't need to add "required":false param.

If this is not working for you and the field is still required, probably you have the validation rule added somewhere else. As you can see in Magento DevDocs, there are multiple ways to add validation rules for a field. I would also add that if your field is created using a uiComponent, then make sure that the validation rule is not defined in the component definition.

And regarding the red asterisk near the field name - please make sure that there are no parent elements having '_required' or 'required' class name.