Forum Discussion

JENNIFERPASCHAL's avatar
JENNIFERPASCHAL
Qrew Trainee
4 years ago

MultiSelect Dropdown Values Changes

Hello,

I have a multi-select field on a form that will have lots of updates to values. I need the ability to keep "old" values in records for historical purposes but remove them from the dropdown. I know when you remove a value from a dropdown field it invalidates the data in records with that value. In the past I have avoided this by creating a table with the dropdown values and included a column with active/inactive to drive what shows in the dropdown on the form in the related table. However, I am not sure how to replicate this with a multi-select field.

Is this possible?

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Thanks in advance,
Jennifer Paschal
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Tables and fields
  • PaulPeterson1's avatar
    PaulPeterson1
    Qrew Assistant Captain
    4 years ago

    I am using something very similar.  I have a table with the list elements and added a checkbox field in both tables I named 'Active'.  I set the default to checked in the table with the drop down and used the Conditional Values to determine which values to show in the drop down:



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    Paul Peterson
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  • EvanMartinez's avatar
    EvanMartinez
    Quickbase Staff
    4 years ago
    Hi Jennifer,

    Unfortunately the ability to get that specific in the multi select text fields isn't possible but there is a method similar to what you are doing with dropdowns. Since you could only select one option via a standard one to many relationship for each of your records you would need to create a many to many relationship. You would have your current parent table, another table with all of your options, and then a table in the center of both (which is a child to both) of assignments for every time you want to add an option. So for example if you had Orders as the parent and then a list of documents used on those Orders you would make an Orders table, and then a Documents table, then in the middle would be an assignment table. Then every time one of your order needs a document you create a record in the join table to show they are connected. This way you can use the same document on many orders and an order can have many documents.

    Then just like your previous example you could have an active/inactive filter for your record picker so only the active options show up to be picked but the inactive ones previous picked still show up. It just requires that middle table to get the flexibility to connect multiple records. For reporting purposes you can use a summary field to pull up the values selected to the parent record for easier reporting. Takes some work to get set up but can provide you with that level of flexibility you are looking for.

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    Evan Martinez
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