Dynamic Picklist (v2) 

Overview

Dynamic Picklists are multiple-choice questions that get their list of choices directly from Salesforce. Values are populated from Salesforce when the form loads, so the choices in your picklist always stay current without having to refresh the schema. 

You can configure your Dynamic Picklists to get their list of choices from:

1. Salesforce Picklist Field
2. Salesforce Object Lookup (Basic)
3. Salesforce Object Lookup (Advanced)

Requirements

To use Dynamic Picklists, you will need:

• Permission to use the Dynamic Picklist feature (controlled by your FormAssembly administrator)
  • Note: This permission is not set by default on new accounts so you may need to edit your permissions. 
• A FormAssembly Essentials plan or above
• Access to a Salesforce instance

Learn more about user roles and permissions.

Set Up a New Dynamic Picklist

1. Add a Drop-Down Menu field to your form
2. Click on the field and choose Choices
3. Click Salesforce Dynamic Picklist
4. Select your existing authorization or connect to a new account. 
   • Note: A new token is generated each time you select "Connect to Salesforce" and log into Salesforce, so please use existing authentications if they're available to preserve your limited tokens.
     
5. Click Next
6. Select your Choices source by clicking on the Get choices from the dropdown box
   • Salesforce Picklist Field
   • Salesforce Object Lookup (Basic)
   • Salesforce Object Lookup (Advanced)

This information can be Salesforce records for that object, or a particular picklist included on the object.

Return Two Or More Salesforce Fields

If you would like to return two fields or more from Salesforce, make sure that you have added additional text input fields to your form in advance. For example, if you would like to return a picklist of Account Names and have a second field filled with the related Account ID then you'll need to have your Dynamic Picklist field added to the form along with a text input field for the Account ID to pull into before you begin mapping. 

Update a Dynamic Picklist v1 Field

If you have an existing field in your form that was set up using our previous version of Dynamic Picklists, here are a few things to note:

1. The only action needed to switch from the older version of the feature to the newer version is to enter into the Form Builder. 
2. Existing Dynamic Picklist fields will continue to work as expected and all of your existing Prefill settings will migrate over.
3. When you edit a field that was set up in Dynamic Picklist v1, you will see a new interface and can adjust your settings as needed. 

Salesforce Picklist Field

1. Choose Salesforce Picklist Field from the Get choices from dropdown.
2. Choose your field from the Picklist Field dropdown.
3. Choose to Enable or Disable the Allow Free Responses toggle. If you'd like to allow respondents to enter information into your Dynamic Picklist, select Enable. 
4. Choose to Enable or Disable the Refresh Salesforce Connection toggle. Enabling this toggle will allow the Salesforce connection to refresh (thereby clearing the cache) to ensure that previously selected values in a dropdown do not display again when the form is loaded at a later time.
   

4. Click Next.
5. You'll now see a preview of the data retrieved in your Dynamic Picklist.  
6. Click OK to save your Dynamic Picklist
7. Save your form

Salesforce Object Lookup (Basic)

1. Choose Salesforce Object Lookup (Basic) from the Get choices from the dropdown box
2. Choose your field(s) in the Return the following field(s) dropdown box
3. Add conditions and sorting specifications if needed
4. Choose to Enable or Disable the Allow Free Responses toggle. If you'd like to allow respondents to enter information into your Dynamic Picklist, select Enable. 
5. Choose to Enable or Disable the Refresh Salesforce Connection toggle. Enabling this toggle will allow the Salesforce connection to refresh (thereby clearing the cache) to ensure that previously selected values in a dropdown do not display again when the form is loaded at a later time.
6. Click Next.
7. You'll now see a preview of the data retrieved in your Dynamic Picklist.  
8. Click OK to save your Dynamic Picklist.
9. Save your form.

Salesforce Object Lookup (Advanced)

1. Choose Salesforce Object Lookup (Advanced) from the Get choices from the dropdown box
   • This is an advanced option that allows you to write a query to pull data into your Dynamic Picklist.
2. Choose to Enable or Disable the Allow Free Responses toggle. If you'd like to allow respondents to enter information into your Dynamic Picklist, select Enable. 
3. Choose to Enable or Disable the Refresh Salesforce Connection toggle. Enabling this toggle will allow the Salesforce connection to refresh (thereby clearing the cache) to ensure that previously selected values in a dropdown do not display again when the form is loaded at a later time.
4. Click Next.
5. You'll now see a preview of the data retrieved in your Dynamic Picklist.  
6. Click OK to save your Dynamic Picklist
7. Save your form.

Case Scenarios

Choices from Salesforce Object Lookup Results

• Angela is creating a form that will link new businesses to existing accounts. She already uses the standard Account object to store and manage account information in Salesforce. By using a Dynamic Picklist, she can create a field on her form that will show a choice for each record in her Salesforce instance. As she adds and removes records in Salesforce, the choices on her live form will automatically update.

Choices from Salesforce Picklist

• Amit uses lots of different forms to facilitate student registration. Each of his forms needs a field for the anticipated start term, but the list of available choices changes every semester. By using a dynamic picklist, Amit can populate the “Anticipated Start Term” field with a list of choices from his “Anticipated Start Term” picklist in Salesforce. When Amit updates his picklist in Salesforce, it will automatically update every one of his forms using that dynamic picklist. 

Dynamic Picklist Limits

• Dynamic Picklists cannot be used in conjunction with conditional questions or menu dependencies.
• Dynamic Picklists cannot be conditioned on Checkboxes, Radio Buttons, Drop-Down Menu, or Multi-Select List fields at this time.
• For forms shared with the Collaboration feature, only the creator of the Dynamic Picklist is able to edit the picklist configuration.
• Dynamic Picklists render in LIVE mode so they cannot be seen in offline mode when using the FormAssembly Mobile App.
• Dynamic Picklists do not currently have a limit on the number of values they will pull in.
• Dynamic Picklist fields that are populated by restricted picklist fields in Salesforce will not work correctly if:
  •  the values are set via custom code 
  •  the value is a calculated value

• Dynamic Picklists now have the option of restricting values.  You'll be able to toggle the switch to allow or not allow outside values from respondents.

• In the dropdown list on the live form, you will see the first 100 results, until you define the query further by typing in a letter.
  • Example:  Your list has 200 countries.  When you look at the form, it will show the first 100 of the list.  If you type in the letter 'A', it will show the first 100 items that start with 'A'.