Dropdown form item set to BLANK with dropdown arrow indicator

[roattw]

Maybe Im breaking drop down form field convention, but I would like the drop down field to NOT be pre-populated with one of the lookup table options.  But I dont want --ANY -- either and would prefer drop down boxes have that right sided downward arrow icon indicating its a drop down field.  I cant get wither to occur.  Thank you.

[JayMont]

You can always customize the values and display on the dropdown. There should be a "custom" option in the field options. When you say arrow, do you mean something like these:  ▼,  ↓ , ↧, ⇊, ⇓ ?

You can copy-paste those arrows in your dropdown as those are standard keyboard characters.

[roattw]

Thanks for the reply.  Correct, Im looking for it to show this symbol on a first blank entry:    like these:  ▼    Not sure what I did but I got it back.  It wasnt there before, even though they were drop boxes.

But I cant see what allows the blank default entry.

Even though the fields are set the same (drop down boxes, referring to lookup tables for their values), some show the tables first value pre-populated, others show the blank.  I want the blank indicated here by LSN Time ;^)  Whats controlling that? 

 

[JayMont]

When you set-up the dropdown field, do you only pull values from Lookup tables? There should be an option to have both Lookup tables and custom values. Under custom values, that's where you set the default value.

 

 

[roattw]

Thanks for the reply Jay!  Its odd.  Mine behave strangely.  Mine does not show "Default" like yours.  If I enter default in there with a vlaue of nothing it shows the word default in the top choice of dropdown.  SOMEHOW I got Hositals dropdown list to work with a blank first entry by entering just a space for Display and Value.  See below.  Tried the same thing for the RACE and it wouldnt work.  Kept reporting "Display has to have a value".  

 

Doesnt work for other fields:

[JayMont]

You could enter a space (" ") in the Display so that it still reads a value. To make this default, make sure that you click the check button after adding the black option.

[roattw]

Thanks Jay.  Thats really wierd, but it works in some of the fields, but in others it wont recognize the blank space - showing an error that Disaply has to have a value:

 

[JayMont]

Is there any difference between this dropdown from the others which has blank default value? Different in the structure of the lookup table perhaps?  

 

Have you tried not clicking the check? Also, try putting in a space in the value as well. 

 

I am trying to recreate this on my end, too.

[roattw]

I tried with check, no check.  I dont see any differences in the tables.  But there must be somewhere.

[roattw]

Checked again.  Nothing seems different.  

On form they both display different with Hospital Correct with a blank first entry.  Race incorrect with no blank possible.  But there datapage and the tables themselves settings seems the same.

 

[JayMont]

I see that all settings looks the same. One work around you can do is create a blank record in the table itself. You can put in spaces, then set that as a default option.

[roattw]

Jay, when you mentioned to make a space in Display I literally took that as a space by keyboard.  In a separate conversation I mentioned it to Ned Pajic and he suggested      instead - and that worked.  I suspect you meant the HTML    as well and I thought HTML could only be entered in areas with an HTML source box option.  (Caspio: mention this in intro tutorials ;^)

Although I swear, on one of the forms the simple keyboard space in Display did work!

So it seems fixed now and I cant thank you enough for all the help on a new guy.  This is a great app.  I am a little surprised that I can figure out the complex items on my own but am being stymied by little basics.

[roattw]

8 hours ago, JayMont said:

I see that all settings looks the same. One work around you can do is create a blank record in the table itself. You can put in spaces, then set that as a default option.

That was going to be my last option.  But the OCD in me was fired up to figure it out.  Think thats a bug?  Shouldnt a keyboard space do the trick?

[JayMont]

Yes, it should've worked with spaces. But, Ned's solution in using      is a lot better because DataPages are generated into HTML files which sometimes ignores spaces typed in keyboard. No worries, roattw! You can always ask questions here in forums as we probably experienced some of the issues while creating our own applications.

[roattw]

Thats really odd. The space DID work, but only on one field, but on others I got that Diplay field error.  Totally odd.  But the direct entry of ;nbsp;   in DISPLAY (value set to nothing) worked. 

[JayMont]

When we enter space through the keyboard sometimes it is ignored by the platform (just like any other system). I suggest using    if you need to have a space value in the future. Space and    are basically the same, the latter part being the encoded version of space.