Add Drop-Down to Form

Author: Ian Britz

Kepion's Modeler allows users to create drop-down objects. Drop-down menus can then be added to Forms, enabling users to select cell input from a menu.

 

Types of Drop-Downs

Kepion supports four types of drop-downs :

 

Member List - Displays the members of any Dimension's Member List.

 

 

Hierarchy - Displays the members of any Dimension's Leveled Hierarchy or Member List.

 

 

Calendar - Allows users to select a date from a calendar.

 

 

Dynamic List - Changes selection based on the current filter. Refer to this article for more detail. 

 

 

Note: Whenever a drop-down is used in a Form, users will see only members from hierarchies.

 

 

Configure Drop-Down

Let's create a drop-down list in the Employee Type column below, to allow us to select from the following job types: Salaried, Hourly, and Contract.

 

 

Create a drop-down Dimension

1. In the Modeler, go to All Dimensions and click Add. 

 

 

2. Enter Dropdown for the Dimension Name and keep the defaults for the other fields. 

3. Click Save. 

 

 

Tip: While you don't have to create a drop-down Dimension, it's usually best to create one for organizational purposes.

 

4. In the Dropdown Dimension, click Member List to create a new Member List to contain the Job Type values for the drop-down menu.

 

 

5. Enter Job Type for the Member List field, and click Save. 

 

 

6. Click Add New to populate the Member List. 

7. Double-click a member to change its Member Label. In this example, the values will be Salaried, Hourly, and Contract.

 

 

Configure drop-down in Form

1. Go to Forms > Drop-down.

2. Select Add to create a new drop-down.

 

 

3. Choose the type of drop-down to use and give it a name.

 

In our example, we are creating a simple flat list, so we will select Member List. Choose the Job Type Member List from the Dropdown Dimension as the source. You can leave the other fields blank for now. 

 

4. Click OK and save the Application. 

 

 

Tip: If you need to know more about the other fields, you will find more information in the sections below.

 

5. Select the target column or cells for the drop-down menu. In this example, we want the cells in the Job Type column to have the drop-down.

 

 

6. Go to Advanced > Drop-Down and select Add.

 

 

The fields we need to define are:

• Drop-Down - The drop-down object we created in the previous step.
• Model Dimension - The Dimension on the form where the drop-down will apply. In this form, the columns are defined by the Metric Dimension.
• Member - The specific dimension member where the drop-down will be used.

 

 

7. Navigate back to the Main tab and refresh the form. The drop-down should now be configured as you see below:

 

 

Note: Remember that a drop-down menu can only be added to input-enabled cells at the lowest-level of a hierarchy.

 

 

URL Link Option

1. Go to Attributes under the Dropdown Dimension.

2. Click Add. 

 

 

3. Name the Attribute URL and make sure you assign an ample amount of characters in the Size field. 

4. Go to the Member List and add the URLs. 

 

 

5. Under Forms > Drop-Down, click Add and specify the URL Attribute.

 

 

Now your drop-downs should have an icon, which when clicked, will navigate you to the intended URL in a new browser tab.

 

 

 

Display by Attribute Option

You can also configure which label is displayed in a menu that's created from a Drop-Down of type Member List. In the Drop-Down configuration window, select which Attribute to display for Alternate Display.

 

 

By default, the Member Name is the label used in a Member List drop-down menu, which in this case would be a list of the country names. However, as we've set it to the Local Currency attribute instead, we now see the currency code.

 

 

 

Add Calendar Drop-Down

Configuring a calendar drop-down is incredibly simple.

 

 

Create a new Drop-Down object of type Calendar and add it to your form in the same way as the above drop-downs.