User-Contributed Dropdown: Sync/Unify options and sort options alphabetically

Hi,

I am creating a form where a customer can add the name of a school.

Can I create and use a drop down menu that get’s updated as new schools are entered by the customer?

e.g. I may have School A, School B and School C in my dropdown menu at the beginning.

However, if a customer’s school is not listed, they should be able to select an ‘Other’ option and type in School D.

The next time another customer fills up the form, School D should also become part of the drop down so it saves them the trouble of entering it again.

Another reason for this is that someone in our office is entering some past entries from older diaries which has a mix of students from several schools. Every time a school that is not in the fixed list comes up, they have to manually type the new school name for every student that went to that school. If they could just enter it once and then it automatically appears in the dropdown or then even auto completes in a field from previous history of entries, it would be perfect!

Pleas help!

Regards,

Kunal.

Hello Kunal,

Thank you for reaching out.

Could you try those two widgets and see if they fit your requirements?

The first one would be the Dynamic DropDown Widget: https://eu.jotform.com/widgets/dynamic-dropdowns

And the other one is the AutoComplete Widget: https://eu.jotform.com/widgets/autocomp

Do not let us know if they do not fit your requirements or the limitations you encounter with those, we will gladly help you to find a more suitable option or a workaround.

Hope this helps.

Do not hesitate to reach out if you need further assistance.

Hi Gaetan,
Thanks for your reply however I think the question has not be understood well by you guys.
Too try and give you a simple example:
eg. In excel, if you type a name in a field once, the next time you go to type something and start using the similar characters, it auto shows that option to select.
No imagine this:
I have specified the following fixed list in my dropdown:
Select Fruit
APPLE
BANANA
ORANGE
OTHER…
User 1 selects APPLE, ORANGE or BANANA. No problem.
However, imagine User 2 selects:
OTHER… - He is then shown an empty field: __________ which he fills with a new fruit called ‘WATERMELON’
So when the next customer, User 3, clicks the dropdown, it shows this:
Select Fruit
APPLE
BANANA
ORANGE
WATERMELON
OTHER…
So, the new entries in the dropdown builds based on previous replies.
I need this feature for my current project and it’s quite useful.
Hope it has been understood better.
Kind regards,
Kunal.
...

Hello,

You may use the User-Contributed DropDown widget to achieve the requirement. This widget allows your form users to add an option to your drop-down field.

It is easy to configure, and easy to use - when your form users click on add option, a dialog will pop out so that they can type in the new drop-down option.

Here's a demo form: https://form.jotform.com/53550853486968

I hope this helps.

Should you have further inquiries, kindly let us know.

Thank you.

Hi,
Firstly, thanks so much! Your suggested widget has really helped. Have used this for now and it works fine.
A few observations however:
1. Is it possible for the list of items get auto sorted alphabetically?
2. Also, if the same menu is used elsewhere on the same form, can the drop down list show the same? If I duplicate it on the same page, it does not update to show the new item added in the duplicated menu.
To explain my point, please check my form:
https://form.jotform.com/210301304750033
If someone selects 2 children, the school drop-down for Child 1 (User-contributed) can be modified to add a new school name.
Then, for the second child, if the school name is the same newly added one for Child 1, it does not show it in the drop down of Child 2 and has to be entered once again in that menu as well.
So after every user modifies the menu, I have to manually go into the backend and do two things:
1. Manually, cut-paste and sort the list in alphabetical order.
2. Then copy the list of options and paste them in each menu manually.
Let me know please.
Kind regards,
Kunal.
...

1. Is it possible for the list of items get auto sorted alphabetically?

Unfortunately, this is not currently possible.

2. Also, if the same menu is used elsewhere on the same form, can the drop down list show the same? If I duplicate it on the same page, it does not update to show the new item added in the duplicated menu.

The second widget does not instantly get filled with the newly entered option in the first widget because the two widgets are treated as separate fields.

Please confirm if you want us to send a feature request regarding these.

We look forward to your reply.

Hi, thanks for the replies.
Yes, would be great if you could please send raise a request for these as these features would benefit not just me but tons of other users I’m sure.
Kind regards,
Kunal.
...

As per your request, I have created a feature request ticket and will be forwarding it to our backend team for possible implementation. 

Please note that we can't give an ETA for when this will be implemented. Feature requests depend on the workloads of our developers and popularity among our users. But rest assured that we will inform you via this thread once this feature becomes available.

Let us know if you have any other concerns.

Thank you.

Look forward. Thanks for the excellent support!
Regards,
K.
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