How to remove the 2 checkboxes from the Gift Messages on Order Level?

Question

I enabled the Gift Messages on Order Level by going to System > Configuration > Sales > Sales > Gift Options. Now - the Gift message shows up on the delivery page during the checkout process.

But it requires (unnecessarily) the customer to click on two check-marks before they get to the actual text field to fill in the their gift message.

In /public_html/app/design/frontend/base/default/template/giftmessage/inline.phtml, I have below code.

<div class="gift-messages-form" id="allow-gift-message-container">
    <div class="inner-box">
        <?php if ($this->isMessagesAvailable()): ?>
            <h4><?php echo $this->__('Your Message for the Entire Order.'); ?></h4>
            <p>
                <input type="checkbox" name="allow_gift_messages_for_order" id="allow_gift_messages_for_order" value="1" onclick="toogleVisibilityOnObjects(this, ['allow-gift-messages-for-order-container']);"<?php if($this->getEntityHasMessage()): ?> checked="checked"<?php endif; ?> class="checkbox" />
                <label for="allow_gift_messages_for_order"><?php echo $this->__('Add a Message for the Entire Order') ?></label>
            </p>
            <div class="allow-gift-messages-for-order-container" id="allow-gift-messages-for-order-container" style="display:none">
                <p><?php echo $this->__('You can leave this box blank if you do not wish to add a gift message for whole order.') ?></p>
                <input type="hidden" name="giftmessage[<?php echo $this->getEntity()->getId() ?>][type]"  value="quote" />
                <ul class="form-list">
                    <li class="fields">
                        <div class="field">
                            <label for="gift-message-whole-from" class="required"><?php echo $this->__('From') ?></label>
                            <div class="input-box">
                                <input type="text" name="giftmessage[<?php echo $this->getEntity()->getId() ?>][from]" id="gift-message-whole-from" title="<?php echo $this->__('From') ?>"  value="<?php echo $this->getEscaped($this->getMessage()->getSender(), $this->getDefaultFrom()) ?>" class="input-text validation-passed" />
                            </div>
                        </div>
                        <div class="field">
                            <label for="gift-message-whole-to" class="required"><?php echo $this->__('To') ?></label>
                            <div class="input-box">
                                <input type="text" name="giftmessage[<?php echo $this->getEntity()->getId() ?>][to]" id="gift-message-whole-to" title="<?php echo $this->__('To') ?>" value="<?php echo $this->getEscaped($this->getMessage()->getRecipient(), $this->getDefaultTo()) ?>" class="input-text validation-passed" />
                            </div>
                        </div>
                    </li>
                    <li class="wide">
                        <label for="gift-message-whole-message" class="required"><?php echo $this->__('Message') ?></label>
                        <div class="input-box">
                            <textarea id="gift-message-whole-message" onchange="toogleRequired('gift-message-whole-message', ['gift-message-whole-from','gift-message-whole-to'])" class="input-text validation-passed giftmessage-area" name="giftmessage[<?php echo $this->getEntity()->getId() ?>][message]" title="<?php echo $this->__('Message') ?>" rows="5" cols="10"><?php echo $this->getEscaped($this->getMessage()->getMessage()) ?></textarea>
                        </div>
                    </li>
                </ul>

Is this the right file that I need to make changes? If yes, then how could I do that?

How can I make the gift card mandatory and restrict to 60 characters?

Basically - I need the Gift message enabled without customers having to click on the check boxes...

---

UPDATED on March 25th, 2019: The solution for me was to add some CSS style coding to an existing CSS file.

Answer 1

Replace this

<?php if($this->getEntityHasMessage()): ?> checked="checked"<?php endif; ?>

with

 checked="checked"

and add the class required-entry on the textarea for messages.

Answer 2

A bit late but you can also do that.
Comment in your code:

 <h4><?php echo $this->__('Gift Options for the Entire Order.'); ?></h4>
                <p>
                    <input type="checkbox" name="allow_gift_messages_for_order" id="allow_gift_messages_for_order" value="1" onclick="toogleVisibilityOnObjects(this, ['allow-gift-messages-for-order-container']);"<?php if($this->getEntityHasMessage()): ?> checked="checked"<?php endif; ?> class="checkbox" />
                    <label for="allow_gift_messages_for_order"><?php echo $this->__('Add gift options for the Entire Order') ?></label>
                </p>  

Then replace

onclick="toogleVisibilityOnObjects(this, ['allow-gift-message-container']);

by

onclick="toogleVisibilityOnObjects(this, ['allow-gift-message-container']);toogleVisibilityOnObjects(this, ['allow-gift-messages-for-order-container']);  

This way you basically call the toogleVisibilityOnObjects on both the containers that you need to display.
Hope it helps