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Custom Lists - Select what to display for users

Nancy Joubert

June 29, 2017 22:21

Completed

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Scenario:

1. We create a custom list and add in keywords A and B
2. As times goes by A is no longer relevant but B is still used and we have to add C.  
3. For the users not to see A I have to delete it.  

Challenge:

The requests that is still open should still have A linked to them until they have all been implemented and any new requests should now use B or C.

When editing the request the value is lost in the field as the list item A has been deleted.  

Requirement:

To be able to 'display = no' list items.  

All can work exactly as it currently does but the ONLY change is that if the display is "No" then it doesn't display for the users to select in the custom list.

5 comments

• 
  PPO Development July 10, 2017 12:51 Official comment

  I think some clarification is required here.  When you delete a custom list item in PPO, it is not really deleted, it is just flagged as "do not display" like in your requirement.  All existing items that have this value retain the "deleted"value i.e. if you look at a list page or view page of the specific item you will see that it still has the deleted value.

  The problem comes when you want to update an item that contains a field with one of the deleted values. Since it does not appear in the list, the browser cannot "default" to it and the user will either be forced to select a new value (if it is a required field) or it will be updated to NULL (if not required), even if the intention is not to update that field.

  The above behaviour is as a result of the standard HTML drop-down control which does not allow a drop-down to have a value that is not contained in the list.

  There is therefore is no quick solution to this except to move away from the standard HTML drop-down control. We have already done this for the employee, project and programme drop-down controls for which we use a custom control rather than the standard control. For these fields, you will notice that even if an employee has been made inactive (and therefore does not appear in the drop-down), the selected value still retains its old value. I believe this is the behaviour you are looking for.

  Although it has always been our intention to eventually change all custom list fields to use the custom control, the amount of effort involved compared to the benefit has meant that it has not yet been a priority. We'll keep you posted if this changes.

   

   

   

• 3
  
  Guy Jelley July 07, 2017 19:22

  Nancy,

  I think this is a great idea. I've seen this where you have cost records showed as "YYYY-MM" and have to keep them in the list to maintain the data integrity but "2013" has long passed.

• 1
  
  Andre Norris July 08, 2017 09:06

  Does make a lot of sense!

• 0
  
  Leana Viljoen July 10, 2017 06:58

  I support this idea as it will be very valuable at almost all of the clients I'm dealing with. Thanks for logging this Nancy!

   

• 0
  
  PPO Development May 02, 2018 15:12

  With the implementation of the new searchable custom list drop-down controls, you will no longer be forced to select a "new" value from a drop-down when the underlying custom list item has been deleted and you want to update the record.

  If you however click on the drop-down, the deleted item will no longer appear in the list.