Collecting Additional Info via Multi-Select Dropdown Form

by HubSite 365 about Pieter Veenstra [MVP] (SharePains)

Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Productivity Principal Architect at HybrIT Services

Pro UserFormsPower PlatformMicrosoft 365

Become a Microsoft expert with our step-by-step guide on using a multi-select dropdown form for better data collection.

Microsoft Form Customization: A Deep Dive

In one blog post, Microsoft MVP Pieter Veenstra of SharePains addresses a query regarding the usage of a multi-select dropdown in forms and the ability to collect more data for each selected option. He presents a detailed pattern that can help answer this curiosity, noting that perfecting these details does not entail making your app look pretty.

The intended use case for this pattern is a form soliciting workdays and asking for a working hours range for each selected workday. The entire process, Veenstra suggests, commences with data, which in this instance, utilizes SharePoint as its foundation. Hence, the initiation requires two SharePoint lists.

The first SharePoint list, dubbed 'My working days', incorporates the basic Title field and a multi-select 'Working days' field with options for all days of the week. The 'Allow multiple selections' option is set to 'Yes'. Then, a second SharePoint list, 'Working times' is added, housing three simple text fields: Start Time, End Time, and Person's Name. For the sake of simplicity and easy comprehension, the solution avoids using different types of fields.

Subsequent steps involve adding a form to the app and placing two fields within it: Title and Working days. With your real app, you may consider renaming these fields, keeping them functionally centric and not necessarily 'pretty'. Now, a complication arises - how do you record the working hours for each of the selected workdays? Because just a form can't inquire for any extra data, another gallery has to be added to the screen.

The gallery possesses a button along with two text inputs and three labels. The Items property of the gallery needs to match the SelectedItems of the dropdown control in the form, resulting in a growing number of items in the gallery as selections are made. For saving data, two sequences of Patch() are used - one for 'My Working Days' list and another for the 'Working times' list.

On the user side, to improve user experience, save buttons are hidden and actions are triggered when data changes. The updated system can now either update an existing record or create a new record, depending upon the entry. Yet, there are more enhancements possible, and the author invites suggestions in the article's comments section.

Additional Insights

Customizing form selections in Microsoft can significantly enhance the data collection capabilities, allowing for more nuanced data gathering for each selected option, such as the 'multi-select dropdown' detailed in the blog post. Regardless of the title or setup of each field or form, effective data collection is usually a result of the proper implementation of core tools like SharePoint. By having the correct foundational knowledge and understanding how to smartly integrate different functions, it doesn't just improve the presented interface, but also augments the user experience as well. Regardless, there is certainly no one-size-fits-all, and with constant innovations in technologies, methods to improve existing systems are always welcome.

Read the full article A form with a multi-select dropdown with additional information collected for each selected option i

Forms - Collecting Additional Info via Multi-Select Dropdown Form

Learn about A form with a multi-select dropdown with additional information collected for each selected option i

Yesterday, an intriguing question was posed regarding the possibility of employing multi-select dropdowns within a form, with each selected option prompting for additional details. This blog post aims to address that query and elaborate on a possible pattern to follow for such development requirements.

The use case for this pattern revolves around a form that solicits for working days, and subsequently a range of working hours for the selected days.

The first phase of developing this solution revolves around data creation. SharePoint lists functions as our development environment. Two SharePoint lists are to be created; one for working days that would contain the list of days of the week, and the second for working times, which would cater to the Start Time, End Time, and Person's Name fields.

Working Days: This list incorporated the standard Title field whilst adding a Working Days multi-select field that enlisted all days of the week.
Working Times: This list exclusively contained 3 text fields: Start Time, End Time, and Person's Name, all of which were simplified as text fields for the purpose of maintaining simplicity.

The next phase involves the inclusion of a form in the app, which will prompt two fields, namely Title and Working Days. The former effectively functions as a means to collect the person's name. Although the fields might appear to require renaming for real-world applications, the focus here is functionality rather than beautifying.

An intriguing feature is the possibility of collecting working hours for each working day. To facilitate this, an extra gallery is included on the screen alongside the form, encompassing a button, two-text inputs, and three labels. Doing so ensures a dynamic number of items in the gallery, which corresponds with the number of selected options.

However, this gallery approach also incorporates multiple save actions to handle data, which degrades user experience. To enhance the user experience, the save actions are moved to the OnChange of the Input Boxes while pressing the button when data changes. This alleviates clutter from the screen and ensures seamless interaction.

Moreover, this solution caters to updates and creations of new records. The Title field acts as a unique link between the two lists that keeps track of a person's records for a particular day. A conditional statement checks for the existence of an item, thus facilitating the update or creation of the record in the Working Times list.

In conclusion, this solution does not just allow a form to select days and display fields for each day; it also simplifies data creation and manipulation, thereby promising a user-friendly experience. This pattern is open to improvement and feedback, so feel free to share your insights in the comments section.

Keywords

Form Multi-Select Dropdown, Additional Information Collection, Dropdown Option Selection, Multi-Select Form Input, Collect Additional Info, Option-Specific Information Collection, Multiple Option Selection Form, Advanced Dropdown Form, Multi-item Select for Forms, Enhancing Form with Multi-Selection