Improper usage or bug - From validation - trim|min_length

[eluser]oneos[/eluser]
What happens then, in a situation where you do want some combination of whitespace as a submission? The validator can't make that decision for you.

Trimming it first (as a validation rule) does not count as an empty field. The field had data in it, and thus the validator rightly initiated the ruleset.

If you don't want to do the extra trim and callback and all that craziness, treat the fields before running validation (or perhaps even run two different rulesets).