Smart Lists

A choice field — Dropdown, Single Choice, Multiple Choice, Searchable Choice — gets its options from one of two places: typed into the field, or from a Smart List shared across forms.

Use a Smart List when the same options appear on more than one form. Sites, cost codes, equipment types, crews. Add a site to the list once and every form using it is updated; edit a label and it changes everywhere.

The Choice Lists page under Settings, listing Equipment Type, Site and Cost Code with the number of items in each. — Settings → Choice Lists. Each list has a name and its items; each item has a value that is stored and a label that is shown.

Creating one

Settings → Choice Lists → New list. Give it a name and add items. Each item has:

a value, which is what the record stores — short, stable, lower case: northgate;
a label, which is what people see: Northgate Depot.

Keep values stable for the same reason as field keys: exports, scripts and integrations see the value, not the label. Rename a label freely; change a value only if you mean to.

Using one on a field

Select a choice field in the builder. Under Options, choose the Smart List instead of typing options. The field now shows the list’s items and follows the list as it changes.

What the record stores

The value, not the label. In an export or a webhook payload, a Site field holds northgate. On the record page, in a PDF and in a DragonDocs document, the label is shown. If you are writing a condition against this data elsewhere, write it against the value.

Deactivating an item

An item can be marked inactive rather than deleted. It stops being offered on forms, but records that already chose it still show its label. Delete an item only if nothing has ever chosen it.