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  • 1.  Multi-select or Dropdown from Data Source question

    Adopter
    Posted 05-09-2022 21:21
    Edited by Scott Gilleland 05-09-2022 21:42
    When using a Multi-select or Dropdown with options from a data source, I get a blank selection choice at the bottom of the popup, like this:


    When selecting this, the following message shows up on the form:


    It doesn't affect the performance of the form in any way.  It won't keep the form from being submitted.  It's just annoying. Is there any way to keep the blank answer from showing up on the popup selections?

    Edit:  This is an uploaded Excel data source.


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    Scott Gilleland
    Senior Field Service Engineer
    Messer Cutting Systems
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  • 2.  RE: Multi-select or Dropdown from Data Source question

    Posted 05-10-2022 14:20

    Hey Scott, 

    I just did some playing around with this and think I have found out why thats happening. 

    When we are parsing through a data source to find the options to display, we will read the rows and then the columns. There is a good explanation here (it says Google Sheets but is also applicable to Excel): https://support.prontoforms.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406631466260-Troubleshooting-Google-Sheets-Data-Source-Multiselect-Question-Showing-Blanks

    It describes how we process the records in a data source and explains why would see a blank value in your drop down. In my test, I have 2 columns that are used for my options. If these 2 columns have different number of options, you will generate a blank value in the list of options because ProntoForms needs to read that row to get the options for the other column and just assumes that "blank" is an option. 

    Example: 

    Data Source with different number of options:
    The app:

    Data source with the same number of options:

    Hope this helps! 



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    Ian Chamberlain
    Implementation Specialist
    ProntoForms
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  • 3.  RE: Multi-select or Dropdown from Data Source question

    Adopter
    Posted 10-20-2022 14:32
    Hey Ian,

    I wanted to chime in on this as I run into this problem from time to time as well. I totally get that prontoforms needs to read the blank row as it is pulling information in a different column. However, would it be possible that the filter logic in prontoforms Multi-select/Dropdown could be updated to include "does not equal". Right now I can filter something if it equals the number 1 or starts with 1. It would be awesome if I could filter as long as it does not equal something. Ie. Filter if column "Option 2" does not equal blank.​

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    Luke Greene
    Risk Analyst
    KONE
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  • 4.  RE: Multi-select or Dropdown from Data Source question

    Adopter
    Posted 10-21-2022 08:55
    I agree with Luke and would like to upvote this suggestion haha. We also have FTP data sources that are not managed by me, and it is often out of our control if one or more of the fields in this data is blank. I have spent months working with different people internally to get some of these blanks corrected, but it would save so much time and effort if I could just filter out any blanks through ProntoForms instead.

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    Lisa Zido
    Technical Systems Analyst
    GOJO Industries Inc.
    OH
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  • 5.  RE: Multi-select or Dropdown from Data Source question

    Adopter
    Posted 10-21-2022 09:15

    Same here, what I have done in some forms is to place a blank text field question and with a conditional, compare both for when both are blank have specific actions.

     

    Kind regards

     

    Cesar

     






  • 6.  RE: Multi-select or Dropdown from Data Source question

    Posted 10-21-2022 11:06
    Hi Cesar, I'm not sure I follow here, is it if someone picks the blank value in a drop down you do something with conditional logic that brings up a message/field that they need to fix it?

    All: Our subject matter expert in this area is @Erin Longhurst and she is on vacation till Tuesday - so stay tuned - Erin's done some research into this area specifically so she'll be able to address this.

    ​​​

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    Natalie Tallon
    Product Manager
    ProntoForms
    ntallon@prontoforms.com
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  • 7.  RE: Multi-select or Dropdown from Data Source question

    Adopter
    Posted 10-21-2022 11:20

    For example I have a form with pre-defined contacts based on the branch, so, if the cell is in blank in the data source, the conditional that is always monitoring the value of the contact, will compare this text field with the blank text field (hidden to the user) and then will make visible a question to manually enter the contact.

     

    Cesar

     






  • 8.  RE: Multi-select or Dropdown from Data Source question

    Posted 10-27-2022 15:14
    Hi folks!

    I'm wondering if an upcoming feature that we've mentioned in roadmap sessions may solve this issue: would being able to view multiple columns of a data source in a dropdown view -- i.e. column 1 may be blank, but column 2 contains data -- mitigate this issue?

    Thanks,

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    Erin Longhurst
    Product Manager
    ProntoForms
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  • 9.  RE: Multi-select or Dropdown from Data Source question

    Adopter
    Posted 10-27-2022 16:30
    I think it would help the user understand the issue but I do not see it as being mitigated. As Scott mentioned above, the blank does not affect the performance of the form, it is just annoying and would be great to filter out rather than simply filtering in.

    Conversely, it would also be great to filter if equals blank as well.  For example, lets say I have equipment number in 1 column and status in column 2. My status column only shows active or blank. If I wanted to set up a question to review non-active units, I would need to adjust my DataSource first as prontoforms can not filter by the logic if status column = blank.

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    Luke Greene
    Risk Analyst
    KONE
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