Multi-select Items

I would like the ability to display multi-select options instead of a dropdown (picklist). I would my users to select multiple types when adding their ToDo task. At the moment it can only be one.

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Hi @Bertus, check out this thread and let us know if it helps. PFR: Provide Check Boxs and Radio Button UI elements

@aj I'm not a coder, but I'm trying to see if I can learn this. In the example given with a table for users and a table for fruits, a few questions do come up.

  1. How is that user table generated? Manual? Does it use automation to look for registered users?

  2. Does it only list users added to a task?

  3. So my "fruits" are Task types. Does it count every time a user selected that type in a task, so does it count every time a user selected that "fruit" in a task or only list how many users in general have ever selected that "fruit".

  4. How would that "Fruit" table look like if Joe has also selected"banana" in the past?

  5. How would it look like if Elizabeth have selected it twice? (this might be answered in 3)

Hi @Bertus, great questions you have and I'm happy to help you learn! I'll answer inline...

1. How is that user table generated? Manual? Does it use automation to look for registered users?
The table itself was manually created, however, the data will be autopopulated based on the automation that adds the user and fruit as they choose from the multiple check boxes (radio buttons in my case).

2. Does it only list users added to a task?
The app will add any user who uses the app and selects one or more radio buttons. Basically if you share the app with a user, once they go in and begin choosing one or more of the buttons, the user table will be updated (as well as the items table).

3. So my "fruits" are Task types. Does it count every time a user selected that type in a task, so does it count every time a user selected that "fruit" in a task or only list how many users in general have ever selected that "fruit".
The users table will track every user that selects a fruit or Task type. Let's say I as a user choose two of three Task types; the users table will list those two Task types. Then another persons comes along, opens the app that you shared, and selects just one of three. The users table will now list the two from me as well as the one from the new person. Even if the Task types are the same, there will be unique records for each, because there are unique users in this case.

Now, the items table will be different. Only the Task types are listed here and there are no duplicates of Task types. Instead, there is a Related Items column which is basically a counter. Whenever a person selects one or more of the Task types, the counter goes up. When they deselect, the counter goes down.

4. How would that "Fruit" table look like if Joe has also selected"banana" in the past?
Next time Joe would open the app banana would be selected already. It persists across sessions, since it's basically just reading the users table and presenting Joe with what they have selected/unselected. In your case, if Joe proceeds with unselecting banana, then the users table will be updated and Joe and banana will be removed (and the Items table will decrement the banana counter by 1).

5. How would it look like if Elizabeth have selected it twice? (this might be answered in 3)
Elizabeth technically couldn't select twice, as every time they go in the selection (or deselection) persists. If Elizabeth went in and selected an item, it becomes selected. Any time in the future they come in, it's still selected. If they click/tap on it while it's selected, then it becomes deselected.

Hopefully this helps provide clarity but let us know if you need any additional points of clarity. If there's still interest in this approach, I recommend that you try to set it up with a minimal set of tables, screens and data; I think it'll make a lot more sense then.

@aj Thank you for the detailed responses. There is just a misunderstanding on point 4.

Elizabeth is adding a task, which has two types (banana, orange) selected.
She adds another task and this time the type is only banana.

How would that table look like now in relation to fruit - user count?

Hi @Bertus, could you send a bit more detail about the model you are thinking about? Sounds like there will be a task type along with individual tasks? Let's shift the discussion to your specific use case (I like fruits, but I think they're now confusing things :slight_smile: ).

In your case it sounds like you will have users checking one or more boxes for tasks. But these tasks also have a type associated with them?

hi @aj My types are slightly complicated by the fact that it has one single choice, which is basically "Everything else" as category. I will leave that out and just stick to the four multi-select options. I have four (blue, red, green, black) categories which can be multi-selected when I add a task.

User one of my app adds a task: "Researching the effect of peanuts on memory loss".
This task touches two of the 4 available categories."blue" and "red".
Another task gets added. "Visiting the family on the farm." This time it only covers "black".

Overtime I want to count for each user of the To Do app, how many blue, red, green and black tasks they have done.

  1. Do I need a table that represents "All users" of the app, even though they don't share tasks?

  2. If an additional person is added to a task, do they get added to "this user's" table or the "All users" app table?

PS: I know type are usually mutually exclusive compare to #tags for example, but in this case my type isn't. The goal of the app is that you actually need to do tasks that covers all four types if you want to be truly happy (the reason for counting the "types"). So in my case, I'm not using categories that are mutually exclusive. I will add #tags later for people to add more detail to their tasks.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Hi @Bertus, sorry for the delay. Trying to understand your use case a bit more, so bear with me. If a user adds a task, such as the memory loss one, does this automatically associate the blue and red categories? Or does the user choose the two out of the four categories listed? There's definitely a difference there as we will need to know whether we need a separate table that has the task to category associations.

Have you tried mocking up the the app in Builder yet? Visually it might help me understand the situation a bit more, which hopefully will allow me to help you more.

Regardless, I'm thinking you will still end up with an all users table, where each user will be associated with one or more categories of which they've completed tasks with.

@aj No problem. But I did notice we have 3 days left to resolve the issue :smile:
One person's blue is another's red, so no they will be selecting it every time (not automatic). In future I would like to do an auto-suggest for that person if they repeat a task.

It might explain better if I show you sketches as the app at the moment doesn't fully illustrate what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to add the "Category" multi-select option on the "Add task" page. If you pm me your email I can add you to the app.

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