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Multiple Dropdown Component

Function

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

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 Variant

Array of options for the user to select. When the data source is a record type, this is a record field or related record field.

Choice Values

choiceValues

List of Variant

Array of values associated with the corresponding choices. When the data source is a record type, this is a record field (usually the primary key field).

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:

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.

Data

data

Any

The record type used as the source of the component's choices. This can be specified with a record type reference or a!recordData().

Sort

sort

List of SortInfo

Array of Sort Info configurations created with a!sortInfo().

Usage considerations

Using the choiceLabels and choiceValues parameters

When you select a record type in design mode, the Choice Labels and Choice Values are automatically populated with record field references. By default, the labels will be the first text field from the record type, and the values will be the primary key field.

If you select the Other option, you need to configure these parameters manually. As you configure them, keep the following points in mind:

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

These rules also apply when using data from a record type, except that choice order is determined by any sorting applied in the Sort section. If no sorting rules are configured, the choices are displayed in ascending order of the Choice Values field.

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.
  • 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.

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

Multiple dropdown with choices from a record type

In this example, imagine you are building a form that lets users create an order. The Order record type has a one-to-many relationship with an Order Line record type. The product for each order line is represented by the itemId field.

We'll use the multiple dropdown component so users can add one or more items to their order. The component's choices are retrieved from a Product record type. choiceLabels uses the name field and the corresponding choiceValues are set using the record type's primary key field, id.

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a!multipleDropdownField(
  data: recordType!AT Product,
  choiceLabels: recordType!AT Product.fields.name,
  choiceValues: recordType!AT Product.fields.id,
  label: "Products",
  value: local!products,
  saveInto: local!products,
)

As the user selects products, the corresponding values are saved to the local!products variable. When they are finished making selections, we can add their selections to the rule input that is passed to a process model. The user will click a button to submit the order, and we can use that interaction to finish constructing the rule input. In the button component's saveInto parameter, we'll use a!forEach() to iterate over the local!products list and save each value as the itemId of an Order Line.

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a!buttonWidget(
  label: "Submit order",
  value: local!items,
  saveInto: a!forEach(
    local!products,
    a!save(
      ri!order[recordType!RE Order.relationships.orderLine][fv!index][recordType!RE Order Line.fields.itemId],
      fv!item
    )
  ),
  style: "OUTLINE",
  submit: true
)

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.

The following patterns include usage of the Multiple Dropdown Component.

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