Dropdowns

dropdown input

Table of Contents

Overview

A dropdown control allows users to select a value from a defined list for data entry.

Each dropdown must be associated with a Single Named Range (SNR) in the workbook, which will constitute the location where the value will be set for calculations, as well as a List Named Range (LNR) that defines a series of valid values from which the user can make their selection.

Properties

The properties of a dropdown are outlined below.

Named Range

A list of all Single Named Ranges (SNR) from the workbook. The value entered into this input will be sent to the calculation engine, as if the user entered the value into the spreadsheet model.

Selecting a named range from the list may default some of the other dropdown properties based on some metadata captured from the spreadsheet model, such as the default value.

Named ranges containing formulas are excluded from the list, as well as named ranges that have already been bound to a different input in your user interface.

Enable Formula Override

This option becomes available only if you select a Name Range that contains a formula.

Enabling this option allows the formula result in the control to be overwritten. This essentially means that users can set a new value for this control during runtime, and the associated formula will not change the cell value once edited.

If a cell with Enable Formula Override is edited, a button will become available right next to the cell, that can be used to clear the formula override and revert the value of the cell back to the original formula-based calculated value.

Force Override on Save

This option becomes available only when Enable Formula Override is enabled, and the Name Range selected for the control contains a formula. Using this option is limited to the scenario in which the published application has an Action Button control with Save event.

When you Save a record in the published application, each control that has Force Override on Save option enabled will save its current value, and override the formula at the same time, even if you haven’t overwritten the value in the control manually. Force Override on Save option does that automatically when the record is being saved.

List Named Range

A list of all List Named Ranges (LNR) from the workbook. The values that may be selected from this dropdown will be generated based on the values that are defined by the selected List Named Range.

List Named Ranges are one-dimensional ranges (i.e. either 1 in width or height).

Show Formatted List Options

When enabled, this feature displays the formatted value of the list options in the dropdown, as they would be displayed in Excel.

The value that is submitted for calculations is still the underlying, non-formatted value.

Name

The Name property constitutes the label that will appear in the user interface. Other properties, such as Tooltip, will also derive their dynamic {FriendlyName} value from this property.

Style

The Style property defines the whether the control type is a standard select dropdown or a select2 control. The select2 control includes a search/auto-complete feature.

Support Multi-Select

This feature allows the user to select multiple values from the dropdown list instead of a single value. Also when this option is enabled, an extra Delimiter option is available (see the description below). This feature is only available when the Style property is set to select2.

Maximum Selected Values

You can define the maximum number of selections that can be made for the Dropdown options from this property. When this limit is reached, you will see the message in the dropdown control "You can only select %s item(s)" You can change this message from the Edit Runtime Text menu. The Keycode for this label is "Client.DropDown.MaximumSelectedValues" Note that this option will only be available when Support Multi-Select is enabled.

Delimiter

This option is available only when Support Multi-Select is enabled. Currently, there are three supported predefined delimiters:

  • Semicolon (;)
  • Asterisk (*)
  • Tilde (~)

The Delimiter property defines the delimiter character that is used to separate multiple selected values of a dropdown control before it is sent to the calculation engine and stored in a corresponding cell referenced by a Named Range.

For example, if a list has three options Dog, Cat, and Fish, and options Dog & Fish are selected, the dropdown's value is being formed by concatenating those selected values together with the selected Delimiter. This would result in one of the following:

  • Dog;Fish
  • Dog*Fish
  • Dog~Fish

For these dropdowns, it will be necessary to add some additional formulas in the underlying Excel spreadsheet model in order to determine whether a single value is selected or not. For example, if you want to determine whether the Dog value is among the selected dropdown list values, you could use the following formula:

  • =ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Dog",A1))

Note: This example assumes that the Named Range points to the cell A1. In this case, the formula would return a TRUE value.

Size

The Size property denotes the size of the calendar in the user interface. Note that altering the style of the calendar via Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) may affect whether or not the size property is visibly relevant in your published application.

Label Horizontal Alignment

The Label Horizontal Alignment property determines the horizontal orientation of the label. This value can be set to Left, Center, or Right. The default horizontal alignment is Left.

Label Vertical Alignment

The Label Vertical Alignment property determines the vertical orientation of the label. This value can be set to Top, Middle, or Bottom. The default vertical alignment is Middle.

Text Alignment

The Text Alignment property indicates where the user's selected text will be aligned within the control. The available options are Left,Center or Right. Note that altering the style of these controls via Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) may affect whether or not this property is relevant in your published application.

Label Size

The Label Size property is the spacing distribution of the input control's label vs. the input control. The maximum width of both controls cumulatively is considered to be 12 - a width of 12 for the label would indicate that the label occupies a full row within its container and the input control occupies a full row beneath it.

Any label distribution below 12 will indicate that the label and the input control occupy the same row in the user interface. The label's width will be used to calculate the control's width such that the two controls cumulatively occupy the full width of 12.

For example, setting the Label Size to 6 will indicate that the control width is also 6. This means the label will occupy 50% the width of the row and the control will occupy 50% the width of the row.

Likewise, setting the Label Size to 3 will indicate that the control width is 9, meaning that the label will occupy 25% the width of the row while the input control occupies 75% the width of the row.

Setting the Label Size to 0 will hide the label in the user interface.

Pull Default Value From Metadata

When this option is selected, the default value of the control will be pulled from the default value of the named range it’s tied to. The default value coming from the named range can be overridden from the Metadata Editor (Names). When you enable this option, the Default Value property will be hidden.

Default Value

The Default Value property specifies the value that will be visible in this dropdown when the user interface is first loaded. This property may have a suggestion populated if the target named range for the dropdown includes a default value.

For dropdown controls, the default value will be selectable based on the values from the corresponding List Named Range that was selected.

"No Option Selected" Item Text

The text corresponding to the NULL selection in the list. By default, the list will include an item named "No Option Selected" to indicate that the value has not been set to one of the values from the corresponding List Named Range. Modifying this property simply sets the visible text value for the NULL selection: the actual underlying value will remain NULL, irrespective of this value.

Tooltip Type

Tooltips are informative message boxes that are displayed when you mouse-over or click on a control. The Tooltip Type property determines the message style, and when the information will be shown.

  • Tooltip: The content will appear in a small bubble when the user enters focus on the target input by moving their mouse over the control.
  • Popover: The content will appear in a pop-up box when the user clicks on the target input.

Tooltip Content

This property accepts the special {FriendlyName} tag if you want to insert the value of the Name property of this control into the tooltip.


Tooltip

The Tooltip Content property determines the information that will appear in the tooltip bubble.

Popover

The Popover Content property determines the information that will appear in the popover message.

Clicking on the Edit Content button will launch an instance of a rich-text editor that supports HTML code. The editor includes a simple menu for inserting certain control sets such as tables, lists, images, videos, and links, as well as text formatting controls, such as boldness, highlighting, and font.

Modifying the HTML Content

Clicking on the HTML (</>) button will change the the editor to HTML-mode. In this mode, you can enter your own HTML code, including references to classes that are defined in the Stylesheets module. Click the 'X' button in the right corner to close this window and save your changes.

Styles that are defined in the Stylesheets module will not be visible in the User Interface Designer view of the application. These stylesheets are only loaded during the Preview and Published versions of the application.

Note that scripts that are injected into the HTML will be stripped from the contents control.

Dynamic Content Injection

The value of calculated, and input named ranges can be injected directly into the HTML contents of the popover.

All dynamically injected variables must be entered inside double curly braces - {{ }}. To inject a variable into the contents, begin by entering double curly braces, and the system will automatically display available fields.

Single Named Ranges

When you enter double curly braces, you will see a list of Single Named Ranges (SNR). Selecting one of these from the list will populate the name of the named range in the contents.

Several formatting options are available when injecting the value of a Single Named Range (SNR). To use any of the formatting options, simply type in a colon character (:) after the name to see a list of supported data types. If you don't apply any formatting, the name will be injected as an unformatted value.

The data types (Integer, Decimal, DateTime, or Text) are necessary to determine the format of the field. The system will automatically format the value of the Single Named Range (SNR) when you select a data type. The text data type will get the formatted value directly from the calculation engine. Text data type also has an optional paramater (None) for formatting that has no effect on the output.

Upon selecting the data type, add a semicolon character (;) to begin defining the desired format for the output value. The .NET formatting standards apply to this property as outlined below.

Below are some examples.

{{NamedRangeName:Decimal;C2}}

  • For NamedRangeName = 12, the formatted value will be $12.00.
  • For NamedRangeName = 1.2345561, the formatted value will be $1.23.
  • For NamedRangeName = 'ABC', the formatted value will be blank.

{{NamedRangeName:Decimal;P3}}

  • For NamedRangeName = 0.12, the formatted value will be 12.000%.
  • For NamedRangeName = 1.2345561, the formatted value will be 123.457%.
  • For NamedRangeName = 'ABC', the formatted value will be blank.

{{NamedRangeName:Decimal;00000}}

  • For NamedRangeName = 1234.5678, the formatted value will be 01235.
  • For NamedRangeName = 1.2345561, the formatted value will be 00001.
  • For NamedRangeName = 'ABC', the formatted value will be blank.

Predefined Formats

You can also use a predefined Numeric, or Date and Time Formatting as outlined below.

Integer (Input value: 1234)

  • {{ValueInteger:Integer;00}} => 1234
  • {{ValueInteger:Integer;#,##0}} => 1,234
  • {{ValueInteger:Integer;00000}} => 01234
  • {{ValueInteger:Integer;##-##}} => 12-34

Decimal (Input value: 123456.78)

  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0.0}} => 123456.8
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0.00}} => 123456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;#,##0.0}} => 123,456.8
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;#,##0.00}} => 123,456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0.##}} => 123456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;00.00}} => 123456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0,0.00}} => 123,456.78
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0%}} => 12345678%
  • {{ValueDecimal:Decimal;0.0%}} => 12345678.0%

Datetime (Input value: 12/05/2018 11:25:07 pm)

  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;yyyy}} => 2018
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;MM}} => 12
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;dd}} => 05
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;yyyy/MM/dd}} => 2018/12/05
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;MM/dd/yyyy}} => 12/05/2018
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;dd/MM/yyyy}} => 05/12/2018
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;HH}} => 23
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;mm}} => 25
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;ss}} => 07
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;tt}} => PM
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;HH:mm tt}} => 23:25 PM
  • {{NamedRangeName:Datetime;HH:mm:ss tt}} => 23:25:07 PM

Text

  • {{NamedRangeName:Text;None}} : None is an optional parameter
  • {{NamedRangeName:Text}} : Will work the same as above

While formats are Culture invariant when making a selection from the list, the values shown will be different for the current application Culture. For example #,##0.0 format will be shown as in "Thousands Comma Delimiter, Decimal Period Delimiter" Culture, but it will be shown as # ##0,0 for the "Thousands Space Delimiter, Decimal Comma Delimiter" Culture setting. Once you make a selection, the value will be inserted in the contents will be the same for all Cultures.


Inserting Stubs Using the Stubs Button

Clicking the Stubs button on the top right of the content editor will open the Insert Stub menu where you can add document stubs with the help of a graphical user interface.

On the Insert Stub menu, you can select a named range, type, and format to automatically add the stub corresponding to your selections. If you want to use text format you can click Pull format from Excel checkbox.

After selecting the named range, type and format properties, or selecting the named range field and clicking Pull format from Excel checkbox press the Insert Stub button to insert the stub text into the content editor.

Tooltip Position

The Tooltip Position property determines where the tooltip or popover will be positioned in respect to the target input.

If Auto is selected, the tooltip or popover position will be calculated automatically based on other parameters like the position of the target input, and content of the tooltip or popover.

Trigger Calculations

If Trigger Calculations is selected, changing the value in this input control will trigger a calculation. Calculations perform a server call with all of the inputs from the user interface and populate the output controls with the values from the updated calculation.

In workbooks with complex calculations, enabling calculations may lead to delays in the user experience.

The best practice when determining whether an input should trigger calculations should take into account the following factors:

  1. Does this input affect any calculated values? If the field is simply informational, then there is no reason for that control to trigger calculations. If there are no formulas or other controls that are dependent on this control, the Trigger Calculations will be disabled by default, but you can enable it anyways if you'd like.
  2. Does this input affect my user interface? If the field can change the visibility or enabled-ness of pages or other controls, then it is a good idea to trigger calculations when changes occur to the input.
  3. Will something else trigger calculations before this input is relevant? If the user won't see the results of the calculations until reaching a different page, then you can hold off on triggering calculations until a button press or a different control's value is changed.

Validation Trigger

The Validation Trigger selection will indicate the events that will cause the validation rules to be processed against the control. Validation constitutes any of the other validation options, such as Required and Minimum/Maximum Length. If validation fails (e.g. input is required but no entry exists), then the request calculation will be skipped.

You can select multiple events to trigger validation. The following triggers are available:

  • After Change - As soon as the value in the control is changed.
  • Before Calculate - Before any calculation event is triggered. This could include navigation or button clicks, as well as any other control triggering calculations. It has the ability to cancel the calculation action when failed.
  • Before Navigate - Before any navigation event is triggered. This could include navigation via user clicking a page in the navigation bar or a button-trigger navigation action. It has the ability to cancel the subsequent action when failed.
  • Before Save - Only before a save action is triggered. It has the ability to cancel the subsequent action when failed.

Required

Indicates whether the input field is required during validation.

This can be configured as Always or Never to indicate whether the input is statically required or not.

Alternatively, if any Boolean Single Named Ranges (SNR) exist (i.e. ranges pointing to a single cell that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE), then the required-ness of the input can be configured to reflect the value of that named range using the 'By Value Of' setting.

Enabled

Indicates whether the input field is enabled.

This can be configured as Always or Never to indicate whether the input is statically enabled or not.

Alternatively, if any Boolean Single Named Ranges (SNR) exist (i.e. ranges pointing to a single cell that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE), then the enabled-ness of the input can be configured to reflect the value of that named range using the 'By Value Of' setting.

Visible

Indicates whether the input field is visible.

This can be configured as Always or Never to indicate whether the input is statically visible or not.

Alternatively, if any Boolean Single Named Ranges (SNR) exist (i.e. ranges pointing to a single cell that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE), then the visibility of the input can be configured to reflect the value of that named range using the 'By Value Of' setting.