Creating a cascading drop down list

hello my name is Bill Gordy and today we're going to be using InfoPath form services to create a series of drop downs the drop downs that we're going to be cascading and we'll show you how to set that all up so first thing I want to do is create a couple of lists first list I want to create is a city actually I'm going to create a state first all right once that's been created I can go ahead and add new states we create Montana and I'm also going to create Texas all right the next thing I want to do is create a new list call it city this type is a customer list just like before next I'm going to do it I'm going to add another field or another column to that create a new column it's going to be a lookup column to the state and I'm going to show the title within that that's all I'm going to do I'm going to click OK and in cities I'm going to create a few cities from Montana I'm going to choose Billings another one from Montana we'll call you and it is pronounced Butte next I'm going to do is get one for Texas and create one Houston the next one I'm going to create is Dallas all right now the next thing I want to do is create another list when I call it my info give me another custom list alright so the next thing we're going to do is create another column for this list we're going to actually create two one first city in one for state I'm going to do state first and we're going to require that that is entered and I said state first so we're going to choose stay here and we're going to choose the title here which is okay next thing we're going to do is create an one more call called city I'm going to say it's a lookup column so it's going to be required and it's kind of City and we're going to also use title for that which is already selected for us next thing we're going to do we're going to go back into the my info library or a list we're going to just see what it looks like if we added one now 110 is already selected who's nothing else to select there first but I can choose Dallas Montana it doesn't really work does it so cascading dropdowns will not work and you cannot give it to work at this level to the best of my knowledge now the next thing we need to do is go to lists and we need to customize this using custom forms it's actually InfoPath so next thing we'll do is actually click on here once on the city go down to drop down list properties we're going to bypass this city data source and actually cut another data source to reach view data I'm going to use a SharePoint library we're going to choose city I choose title in the state ideas already pre-selected for you and you can deselect it we're just going to go ahead and leave the default name I'm going to click okay to that first thing we're going to do here is check change the XPath query so you can filter data there we're going to click filter data click Add we're going to set the X okay we're going to choose State is equal to then we're going to change this to the main and then select the city I'm sorry to state rather and then make data source this is what you're doing here is you're comparing the state that's in the data source that you just added to the new state I'm sorry to the means main data sources state so this is how we compare the two click OK click OK here click OK here as well and the value of title needs be actually changed to ID however display name should read this title click OK and you can either hit f5 to test this or click preview just to test it I'm going to choose Montana and it does filter form and this is what we'd use for cascading dropdowns now one of the problems that I have that you see here is a couple of problems action one of the issues that we have is in Texas I didn't specify Dallas so if I just go back to that I go back to that info path list I'm sorry the SharePoint list into the city you'll see that Dallas doesn't actually have a a value let me go and fix that real quick change it to Texas and now fighting I'm back my InfoPath form just had a five again just test it nothing's in there now and then of course Dallas and Houston are selected so I'm going to close this preview I'm not going to actually enter or submit anything one thing I want to do is actually show you an additional problem that we're going to have now if I choose Montana and Billings and then I choose Texas again the idea is set to one the city what the heck is that well that's actually the ID so I'm going to create a rule I'm going to right-click on the state go to change I'm sorry rules go to manage rules here go to new action we're just going to keep everything by default and then we're going to add a new value all right next thing we're going to do in here is we're going to select the field and we're going to select the city and we're just going to leave a blank so it means every time you select city I'm sorry state the city is going to be empty now the last thing you need to do is just go ahead and publish this you can actually go to file and you can do a quick publish under info or you can close the form it will ask you if you want to save it now once you do that if you go to your mind pub eye breather click on add new test-1 and then I'm going to choose state of Montana I'm just going to be loud if a click selected for me and of course when I go back into those to edit it it's actually going to show me the data that I selected then when I go to edit form it's going to have everything in there just the way it should be that's all I wanted to show you and if you have any questions or comments please feel free to go to my exp com that's my SharePoint experience com thank you

Channel: William Daugherty

Views: 143,843

Rating: 4.8162546 out of 5

Keywords: Creating, cascading, drop, down, list

Id: -HnLhXVQf-M

Length: 7min 37sec (457 seconds)

Published: Mon May 09 2011