Actual help texts are rendered as error, warning, success etc.

[dyve]

When a form is styled with form control states (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/base-css.html?#forms, scroll down a little), all help texts (both help-inline and help-block) take their styling from the control state (error, warning, etc).

However, the example fails to take regular help text into account.

With the current version of Bootstrap, any help text within a control-group with a state class is styled as if it is part of the error message, which is wrong. The help text should be styled as what it is, a help text. The underlying issue here of course is that the messages are using the classes for help.

I made a small demo of the official Bootstrap example with added help-block p's with regular help text. I hope this illustrates the problem:

http://jsfiddle.net/TE7HK/1/ (same goes for help-inline)

I see two possible solutions.

1. Make a difference between help-inline/help-block and message-inline/message-block. Messages are styled like help texts, but take their colors from a surrounding control-group.error class. This would break compatibility with 2.0.0 as far as colors go, but not the actual display of items. Also, it would introduce 2 new classes (message-inline, message-block).
2. Add the option to define a help-block and help-inline with an extra class "help", which makes them unaffected by surrounding error, warning, etc.

e.g.

<p class="help-block">I will take the color from my control state. If there isn't any, I'll be styled like help.</p>
<p class="help-block help">You won't see mee turn red because of an error!</p>
<p class="help-block error">I will always be displayed as an error text, regardless of the control state.</p>

After writing this up, I'm in favor of solution #2.

[dyve]

I clarified text and improved my suggestion #2.

[nkryptic]

I am very much in favor of having this addressed, as it seem like an oversight to not handle the original help-texts when adding error/success messages. I personally am in favor of @dyve's #1 above, as there is a semantic difference between help text for a field and status messages about the entry/submission.

+1

[andriijas]

why dont you guys just make your own class in your less files,

.message-block {
.help-block;
color: #000;
}

The point here being, its too easy to see bootstrap as set in stone, but its so easy to customize for own needs. Think outside of the box.

[nkryptic]

@andriljas, something like what you propose is what I'm doing right now. But, I see it as an area of form rendering that bootstrap should cover by default.

[andriijas]

you could use tooltips for actual help text and help-inline for errors, example: #2161

[andriijas]

What I would like to highlight as an issue though is the fact that you cant put an input into "error state" unless you have the control group markup in place. But Im not sure its something bootstrap should solve out of the box.

[mdo]

Punting discussion to @dyve's pull request, #2173. No matter what, we need to revisit how we handle these errors and it will have to wait until a larger version bump I'm afraid. We'll do our best though!