Drop Down Lists

[jason.staines]

Hi

I want to start out by saying I love the new features where you are able to change the contents of a drop down list based on the choice made in a parent drop down list. However, I would have preferred it if this had been separate from the dependency option. I have a requirement when I need to alter the contents of a drop down based on one drop down but also make the it visible or invisible based on the contents of another drop down. e.g. I have a Result field for phone calls. I also have a call type field which will determine which entries are available in the call result drop down list. However, I also only want to make the result field visible and required once the status of the call has been set to held.

There are also some features of the dependent drop down feature which are a little "buggy"

I like to make the first entry in the drop down list blank and make this the default value. If you do this with a drop down which has a parent it skews all the result sets.
e.g. I have my call classifications configured like this

When i come to make my selection this is what I can see
.
As you can see the selection of "Service" in the business area field shows the entries for the "Sales" option. This skew is carried through across the whole of the list.

I have found a way of countering acting this by placing the parent blank entry at the bottom of the drop down list. However this has a knock on effect where by if you have specified Blank as the default value the field defaults to the first entry in the list.

Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.

[wjwood64]

Jason,

I am puzzled. Where are you finding this ability to edit the drop down field dependencies? I would be happy to just be able to do a one to one dependency. I can not find the screen you are showing to create the drop down options. I know where the drop down editor is and am familiar with it. Just don't know where you build these relationships.

[jason.staines]

Hi WJ

I am using Sugar Pro 6.5.7. Which version are you using?

[wjwood64]

Sugar CE 6.5.10

Based on your version I am guessing this is only available in the paid versions of the app... Grrrr...

[jason.staines]

HI

It would look that way. However, I think you can achieve something similar using the development tool kit which is available from the sugar forge.

[Francescas]

Jason, this should work for you, I usually do these in code not studio.
Say you are in <yourmodule> and want dropdownA to change the values in dropdownB
also dropdownB should display only if fieldC has a value of "C1".

in custom/Extension/modules/<yourmodule>/Ext/Vardefs/<choose_a_name>.php

The visibility_grid determines which category values are displayed for which values of the trigger dropdown
While the dependency determines when the dropdown is visible

To Show B1 and B2 when A1 is chosen
and B3 when A2 is chosen:

[PHP]
$dictionary['<yourmoduleSingular>']['fields']['dropdownB']['visibility_grid'] = array (
'trigger' => 'dropdownA',
'values' => array (
'A1'=>array(
'' //the empty option if you want it
,'B1'
,'B2'
),
'A2'=>array(
''
,'B3'
),
),
);
[PHP]

To hide dropdownB unless fieldC == C1
in that same vardef extension file:
[PHP]
$dictionary['<yourmoduleSingular>']['fields']['dropdownB']['dependency'] = 'equal($fieldC,"C1")';
[PHP]

Additionally you can make the dropdown mandatory, say you want dropdownB to be mandatory when dropdwnA value is A1:
custom/Extension/modules/<yourmodule>/Ext/Dependencies

 <?php
$dependencies['<yourmodule>']['dropdownB'] = array(
        'hooks' => array("edit"),
        'trigger' => 'true',
        'triggerFields' => array('dropdownA'),
        'onload' => true,
        //Actions is a list of actions to fire when the trigger is true
        'actions' => array(
                array(
                        'name' => 'SetRequired',
                        //The parameters passed in will depend on the action type set in 'name'
                        'params' => array(
                                'target' => 'dropdownB',
                                'label'  => 'dropdownB_label',
                                'value' => 'equal($dropdownA, "A1")',
                        ),
                ),
        ),
);  

make sure the values are always the database values (not what the user sees in the front end).
Also note that the module name is singular (e.g. Contact) for the vardefs, but plural (e.g. Contacts) for the dependencies.

HTH
Francesca