[ryno]

Okay - here's the deal.


Don't worry about include/product_modify.php
Leave it alone - it does what it's supposed to.

Edit: /yourSkin/main/product_details.tpl

Instead of this:

<tr> 
{if $productids ne ''}<td width="15" class="TableSubHead"><input type="checkbox" value="Y" name="fields[descr]" /></td>{/if}
  <td class="FormButton" valign="top" nowrap>{$lng.lbl_short_description}* :</td>
  <td class="ProductDetails"> 
    <textarea name="descr" cols="45" rows="8" class="InputWidth">{$product.descr|escape:"html"}</textarea>
{if $top_message.fillerror ne "" and $product.descr eq ""}<font class="Star">&lt;&lt;</font>{/if}  </td>
</tr>

I replaced that whole row with a hidden field:

<input type=hidden value=" " name="descr" />

So the textarea doesn't have to be a textarea, its just that the variable "descr" just has to have SOME value - hence the 'space' in the value attribute.

The BEST way to do this, would be to go hack out every insert and validation rule for this field but - time is money and money talks so... It's semi-ugly but extremely effective.

rYno