Multiple Dropdown Component

Function

Copy link to clipboard

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

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

Copy link to clipboard

Usage considerations

Copy link to clipboard

Using the choiceLabels and choiceValues parameters

Copy link to clipboard

When configuring the Choice Labels and Choice Values parameters, keep the following in mind:

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

When you select Record Type as the data source, 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.

You can format and display multiple record fields in the Choice Labels parameter using fv!data and a record field reference. For example, if you want to display a list of US cities with their states in parentheses, you could use the following expression:

1
choiceLabels: fv!data[recordType!Location.fields.city] & " (" & fv!data[recordType!Location.fields.state] & ")"
Copy

This would display choice labels as:

1
2
3
4
5
New York City (New York)
Los Angeles (California)
Chicago (Illinois)
Houston (Texas)
Phoenix (Arizona)
Copy

Sort choices

Copy link to clipboard

The way you sort the choices depends on the source of the component. If no sort is applied, the labels will appear in the order they're provided.

When you select Record Type as the data source:

• The choice order is determined by the Sort parameter.

• You can automatically sort by the values configured in the Choice Labels or Choice Values parameters by using "choiceLabels" or "choiceValues" in the a!sortInfo() function.

  For example, a!sortInfo(field: “choiceLabels”, ascending: true) would automatically sort the choices by the values in the Choice Labels parameter.

When you select Other as the data source:

• The choices display in the order defined in the Choice Labels.

Selecting, saving, and clearing values

Copy link to clipboard

• 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.

When to use a multiple dropdown

Copy link to clipboard

There are multiple selection components you can use to display options in an interface. As a best practice, you should use the multiple dropdown component if users need to be able to select none, one, or many of the options.

If there are a large set of options, consider using a picker component. The picker search runs server-side and the performance cost of loading options happens while the user is searching. This may lead to better performance than a dropdown if you have a large set of options.

If users only need to select a single option out of a small set of option, use a dropdown component.

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

Row limit for records-powered components

Copy link to clipboard

Interface components that use a record type as the data source are known as records-powered components.

Records-powered components can display a maximum of 5,000 rows. As a best practice, you should not display all 5,000 rows in a component since it may impact performance.

Examples

Copy link to clipboard

Multiple dropdown with choices from a record type

Copy link to clipboard

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.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
a!multipleDropdownField(
  data: recordType!RE Product,
  choiceLabels: recordType!RE Product.fields.name,
  choiceValues: recordType!RE Product.fields.id,
  label: "Products",
  value: local!products,
  saveInto: local!products,
)
Copy

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.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
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
)
Copy

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

Copy link to clipboard

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

Use the interactive editor below to test out your code:

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

Use the interactive editor below to test out your code:

Dropdown with no choice selected by default and search on

Copy link to clipboard

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

Use the interactive editor below to test out your code:

Feature compatibility

Copy link to clipboard

Old versions

Copy link to clipboard

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.

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

Related Patterns

Copy link to clipboard

The following patterns include usage of the Multiple Dropdown Component.

• Offline Mobile Task Report (Grids, Filtering, Process Task Links, Task Reports, Looping): Display a task report for a user that will work in Appian Mobile, even when the user is offline.

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

Feedback

Copy link to clipboard