FIELD OPTION GROUPS out of database

[Hannes]

Hey there,

i would like to have "field option groups" that can filter its entries out of another form tools database.
So that I can have have a form tools form with records for "group" and "entry".
This would enable to dynamically add options to dropdowns etc. by a client form.

Example:
______________________________________________________________
Form 1 records:

Code:

status | name    | task
-------|---------|----------------
user   | Hannes  | wishing
user   | Guest   | comenting
admin  | Ben     | solving

field option group "user names":
all 'name' out of Form 1 where group=user
which would be "Hannes, Guest"

field option group "status":
all 'status' out of Form 1 without doubles
which would be "user, admin"

field option group "tasks":
all 'task' out of Form 1 without doubles
which would be "wishing, commenting, solving"
______________________________________________________________

Cheers,
Hannes

[Ben]

Great minds think alike.

I was planning to include something very like it - will be in the next release as well. (I love when I can say that).

My original idea was that The Custom Fields module will contain a new field type that lets you pull all its values from a field in another form. There will be a few options for this field type: including sort order, removing duplicates and display type (select / radios / checkboxes / multi-select). This will effectively create a Field Option Group (soon to be called "Option Lists" btw) with dynamic contents.

But perhaps your idea of just having an option on the existing field types (select / radios etc) to pull from another field would be simpler.

I'll have to think about this some more.

- Ben

[Hannes]

Hi Ben,

thank you.
One more feature I can't wait to see...

Another request is to be able to turn alphabetical sorting on and off for dropdown fields.

Cheers,
Hannes

[Ben]

Very interesting... yes, this would be a nice addition. With the new sortables being added in 2.1, I could add a little icon at the top of the sections to sort up or down. I won't get this into the first release, but great idea.

By the way, I ended up dropping my approach of having a separate field type to pull data from another form's field. Instead, I went with your idea of permitting that option to any existing form field type (radios, dropdowns etc). This seems a lot more elegant and less redundant code. Thanks for that!

- Ben

[Hannes]

Hi Ben,

what is the status?
This feature would be very, very helpful!
It would save us a lot of work and open a lot of new possibilities in use of FT.
Please include it in 2.1 although already now I can not wait to see the first release!

Cheers,
Hannes

[Ben]

Hi Hannes,

Yup! This is already in the code. It's exceedingly cool.

Once I get a little closer I'll either post some more screenshots or maybe put together a short video demoing the new features.

- Ben