Function

a!multipleDropdownField( label, instructions, required, disabled, placeholder, choiceLabels, choiceValues, value, validations, saveInto, validationGroup, requiredMessage, labelPosition, helpTooltip, accessibilityText, showWhen, searchDisplay )

Displays a list of choices for the user to select multiple items and saves values based on the selected choices.

If users should only select one choice, use radio buttons or a dropdown component instead.

If there aren't many choices and users would benefit from easily seeing them all at once, consider using checkboxes.

Parameters

Name	Keyword	Types	Description
Label	label	Text	Text to display as the field label.
Instructions	instructions	Text	Supplemental text about this field.
Required	required	Boolean	Determines if a value is required to submit the form. Default: false.
Disabled	disabled	Boolean	Determines if the field should display as potentially editable but grayed out. Default: false.
Placeholder	placeholder	Text	Text to display in the field when it is empty.
Choice Labels	choiceLabels	List of Text String	Array of options for the user to select.
Choice Values	choiceValues	List of Variant	Array of values associated with the available choices.
Selected Values	value	List of Variant	Values of choices to display as selected.
Validations	validations	List of Text String	Validation errors to display below the field when the value is not null.
Save Selection To	saveInto	List of Save	One or more variables that are updated with the choice values when the user changes the selections. Use a!save() to save a modified or alternative value to a variable.
Validation Group	validationGroup	Text	When present, the requiredness of the field is only evaluated when a button in the same validation group is pressed. The value for this parameter cannot contain spaces. For example, “validation group” is not a valid value. You need to add an underscore between words: “validation_group”. See the following recipes for more information: Configure Buttons with Conditional Requiredness Validation Groups for Buttons with Multiple Validation Rules'
Required Message	requiredMessage	Text	Custom message to display when the field's value is required and not provided.
Label Position	labelPosition	Text	Determines where the label appears. Valid values: "ABOVE" (default) Displays the label above the component. "ADJACENT" Displays the label to the left of the component. "COLLAPSED" Hides the label. The label will still be read by screen readers; see accessibility considerations for more information. "JUSTIFIED" Aligns the label alongside the component starting at the edge of the page.
Help Tooltip	helpTooltip	Text	Displays a help icon with the specified text as a tooltip. The tooltip displays a maximum of 500 characters. The help icon does not show when the label position is "COLLAPSED".
Accessibility Text	accessibilityText	Text	Additional text to be announced by screen readers. Used only for accessibility; produces no visible change.
Visibility	showWhen	Boolean	Determines whether the component is displayed on the interface. When set to false, the component is hidden and is not evaluated. Default: true.
Search Display	searchDisplay	Text	Determines when a search box displays above the options. Valid values: "AUTO" (default), "ON", "OFF". When set to "AUTO", the search box displays if there are more than 11 options.

Usage considerations

Using the choiceLabels and choiceValues parameters

• The Choice Labels list and Choice Values list must be the same length.
• Choice Values cannot contain nulls or duplicate values.
• Choices display in the same order as defined in the Choice Labels parameter. The Choice Labels argument cannot be null.

Selecting, saving, and clearing values

• If a single item is selected, the system saves a single-item array.
• If no selection is made or the selection is cleared, the system saves a null value into the component's Save Selection To field.
• Users can always clear the value using the x icon on web or the Clear link on the mobile application.

Dropdowns vs pickers

• If you are trying to decide whether to use a dropdown with search or a picker component, keep in mind that the dropdown search runs client-side and the performance cost of loading options happens on initial load whereas the picker search runs server-side and the performance cost of loading options happens while the user is searching. For small sets of options, we recommend using the dropdown component.

Examples

Use the interactive editor below to test out your code:

Multiple dropdown with the first choice selected by default and search on auto

Since the searchDisplay parameter is set to AUTO and the number of choiceValues is less than 12, no search box will be displayed.

Since the searchDisplay parameter is set to AUTO and the number of choiceValues is more than 11, a search box will be displayed.

Dropdown with no choice selected by default and search on

Since the searchDisplay parameter is set to ON, even though the number of choiceValues is less than 12, a search box will be displayed.

Feature compatibility

The table below lists this component's compatibility with various features in Appian.

Feature	Compatibility	Note
Portals	Compatible
Offline Mobile	Compatible
Sync-Time Custom Record Fields	Incompatible
Real-Time Custom Record Fields	Incompatible	Custom record fields that evaluate in real time must be configured using one or more Custom Field functions.
Process Reports	Incompatible	Cannot be used to configure a process report.
Process Events	Incompatible	Cannot be used to configure a process event node, such as a start event or timer event.

Old versions

There are older versions of this interface component. You can identify older versions by looking at the name to see if there is a version suffix. If you are using an old version, be sure to refer to the corresponding documentation from the list below.

Old Versions	Reason for Update
a!multipledropdownField_20r2	Added an optional search box.

To learn more about how Appian handles this kind of versioning, see the Function and Component Versions page.

Related Patterns

The following patterns include usage of the Multiple Dropdown Component.

• Task Report Pattern (Grids, Filters, Process Task Links, Task Reports): Provides a simple way to create and display an Appian task report.