Working with Picklists

A Picklist is a field that can contain a list of values. It appears as a dropdown list when displayed.

Create a Picklist

1. Click Designer > Data > Objects > {object} > Fields
2. Click [New Field]
3. In the Basic Information section, specify the basic characteristics of the field:

   Label - The text that appears as the field name

   Display Type - Picklist

   Picklist Values - For a simple Picklist that displays the same values it returns with no colors, images, or other styling, you can simply enter the values, as shown here:

   

   Otherwise, wait until the Picklist has been created, then Manage Values (descrbed below) to specify display text, colors, and images, along with the value returned for each selection.

   Maximum Storage Length - The String length of the longest value in the list.

   Use First Value as Default - Otherwise, the field is intially empty.

   Sort List Alphabetically - Otherwise, you manually arrange the order.

   Always Required - A selection must be made when adding or updating a record.

   Field Name - Automatically created by the system (but you can change it here)

4. In the Display Attributes section, show where the field is displayed in the default form, and whether or not a selection is required when adding or updating a record.

5. In the Default Value section, specify the default value. (In general, the default value will be a simple String. For example: 'rush'.)

6. In the Role Based Permission Control section, select a Role Based Permission Control for each of the roles in the list

7. In the Description Information section, include a description of the field and it's use. This information is only visible to users with rights to customize this field.
8. Click [Save]
   The field is added, and the field-definition is shown.

Manage and Reorder Values

Specify Display Text, Colors, Images, and Grouping Labels

The Enumerated Values section of the field-definition page lets you specify display-text, colors, images, and grouping labels, as well as the values returned by user selections:

Note: These options are available only when viewing an enumerated field, not when editing it.

Click [Manage Values] to specify display text, color, images, and grouping labels.

• Fields

Alphanumeric Characters are allowed in labels and values, including special characters (+ / ' - _) and spaces.

• Display Label - The label to display in the list.
• Value - The actual value that is stored in a record (or returned to a program) when this item is chosen from the list.
• Image - Specify an image to display (learn more below)
• Show only Image in View mode - Whether to show the image alone, or together with the label.
• Font color - Foreground color
• Background color - Color of the area in which the text is displayed
• Use Label for grouping - The specified label becomes a heading in the list, rather than a selectable value (learn more below)

• Specify images

To specify images, first upload them to the platform as Documents. This example shows records that were created after selecting such images from a picklist:

• 

  Fruit and Vegetable are group labels

  Specify grouping labels

Click Use Label for Grouping to use a label as a group indicator, rather than making it a selection the user can click.

This option is useful when a picklist is long, and can be organized into groups.

Considerations

• The Use Label for grouping option is available only for Picklists
• After the Use Label for grouping option is selected, the Sort List Alphabetically option is reset to No (otherwise, the label won't be helpful).
• If the Use Label for grouping option is selected, the enumerated values are not available for dependent field associations.

Reorder Values

In the Enumerated Values section of the field-definition page, click [Reorder Values] to change the order in which the values appear:

Note: Reordering can be done only when the Sort List Alphabetically option is unchecked.