Dynamic Dropdown List on a Form

JimH

Hey everyone,

Relatively new user, currently have smartsheet deployed in my production operations and scheduling areas. A little background on what how I'm using smartsheet and my question...

I have a production schedule that is used to track new orders as they come through completion. Simple sheet setup by date with customer information and product separated into columns; as orders are ready for fulfillment, they are marked (check box) as "Ready" by the production scheduler and once completed they are again marked (check box) as "Complete" by an employee. Once an order is confirmed complete and ready for shipment, the last checkbox is selected to indicate an order is "Shipped" which also moves the order to a separate archive sheet. All of this works great, but we had to do something for QC to monitor outgoing shipments, so...

I setup a form on a separate sheet for employees to take pictures of the orders as they are fulfilled and it works great with one exception...the identification number used to track orders is being typed in on the form and it is resulting in too many errors.

The operation I would like to see happen is when a given order is checked as "Ready" to fufill, have the order ID number populate a drop down list on the form so all an employee has to do is select the correct customer, take the pic and submit.

Is this possible? I'm open to moving the form the primary production scheduling sheet if that makes a difference in linking to the correct cells...nothing is set in stone.

Thanks in advance for any and all comments/suggestions!

Andrée Starå

Hi @JimH

I hope you're well and safe!

Do you have access to Data Shuttle?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Paul Newcome

Of course you can use a manual copy/paste from a filter to update the dropdown column properties, but that is never ideal. To get the dropdown selections to automatically update based on a list, you will need to either leverage the API or the premium add-on Data Shuttle.

JimH

Hi Andre,

Is data shuttle the same as data mesh? I have access to data mesh...

Sorry for my ignorance, still have a lot to learn about the lingo and functionality!

Jim

Andrée Starå

@JimH

No, they are two different premium apps.

More info.

https://www.smartsheet.com/marketplace/premium-apps/data-uploader

Is that an option?

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JimH

Hi Andree,

I do not have data shuttle, just checked...

The data I'm trying to pull from is already in smartsheet, that's being entered as orders come in...don't know if that makes a difference or not!

Thank you!

J

Paul Newcome

@JimH If you don't have Data Shuttle then unfortunately you are limited to a manual copy/paste management of the dropdown options or the API. I'm not sure if that is something the premium add-on Bridge (basically a slightly more user friendly API interface) can help with. but I imagine if you don't have Data Shuttle then you probably don't have Bridge either.

Andrée Starå

@JimH

You're more than welcome!

Ok. Then you can update it manually or use the Smartsheet API or similar if you have development resources available.

If you decide on doing it manually, there might be options that can simplify to keep it up to date.

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JimH

Thanks for the reply Andree, I do not currently have a development resource available...it's just me. Small company and to describe my skills as rudimentary at best is accurate.

I attached a pic of the schedule I built that works well for us. I'm copying the file path of an order, pasting it into the black filled cell you see on the left and then parsing it out into the components we need. (our orders generate such that this information is contained in the file name of a pdf).

What I would like to do is have the number in the blue circle populate into the drop down menu on my form once the check box indicated by the arrow is selected. Thought maybe this would shed more light on my question...

Since I don't have API capability...how could I simplify this manually?

Thank you!

J

Paul Newcome

@JimH Assuming we are just looking at sample data and the SO# will not be duplicated, you could create a row report (or filter in the sheet) to only show rows where the box is checked. You would then copy the shown cells from the SO# column and paste them into the column properties of the dropdown column.

If it is possible to have the same SO# on more than one checked row and you want to filter out those duplicates, let me know, and I'd be happy to help walk you though generating a unique list.

Andrée Starå

@JimH

Happy to help!

I'd recommend creating a so-called helper report which would show the SO# that are checked and then copy from it to the dropdown list.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

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JimH

Thanks all, yes, makes perfect sense! And, it's something I know how to do as well...

Really appreciate all the help, if I run into any issues I'll be sure to come back and ask again!

Paul Newcome

Happy to help. 👍️

Andrée Starå

@JimH

I'm always happy to help!

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Gia Thinh

Hi @JimH ,

In addition to Andree's and Paul Newcome's responses, I'd like to propose a solution for automatically updating dropdowns. Please take a look at the link below for our SmartDropdown solution, which is officially listed in the Smartsheet marketplace.

SmartDropdown for Smartsheet

Your problem can be solved as steps below:

• Create a Report with filter for the checked "Blend Sheet" rows of your schedule sheet, including he SO# column. Every time there are changes in the "Blend Sheet", the Report will automatically include new rows.
• Use the SO# column of the Report as a source column for our SmartDropdown task to real-time update the dropdown list of your target column/Form

If you're interested in a demo/trial or would like to learn more, please connect with me at :

Contact - Gia Thinh Co.

NourMansour

Hello Everyone, I came up with a solution to this particular problem which everyone can try for free and share feedback https://nojolu.net/tool/dropdown_sync/landing