Limit on options of dropdown field in Assets Metadata Schema

[anurag_dang]

Hi,

I'm trying to create a custom dropdown field in Assets Metadata schema. This dropdown field has 5800 options as per business requirement. Im adding these 5800 options using json file. However after I add the json file, it imports only 1497 options from json. I want to know if there is any limit on the number of options in a dropdown field. If yes how can we increase it? I tried searching for any configuration with limit as parameter but not able to find. Looking for support.

[diksha_mishra]

@anurag_dang  there is definitely a limit to the dropdown values, but you correctly mentioned, it is not provided anywhere in the documentation.

We had a similar issue with "Asset Owner" field, which was mandatory and should have populated all users list. But due to the limit, it was always incorrect/ didn't load fully. We had to change it to Standard tags field, instead of dropdown as a workaround. You might want to try that from metadata schema editor. 

[digarg]

Having 5800 option in dropdown doesn't look like an optimal implementation and solution . As a user , I cannot scroll through 5800 options to set this metadata even 100 options are quite a lot of value. to scroll through.

Can you not consider adding logic to automatically add this metadata property and value based on business requirement ?

[Adilos-Cantuerk · Accepted solution]

Hi @anurag_dang , 
this sounds like a requirement that, the moment you get what you asked for, will surely be very unsatisfying to work with.
Instead of having an User to scroll through 5800 options, how about you try something else to get there?
Maybe there is something that you could group together in some kind of hierarchy?

Since i do not really know what the requirement is exactly, my explanation might have a oversimplified example, but the idea would be like this.

Lets assume for now that your Options are just the Numbers from 0001 to 5800.
A hirarchy then could be - 1000 > 100 > 10 
I would create one dropdown field, with 6 options - Numbers from 0 to 5 (Representing the 1000)
Then i would create 10 additional dropdown fields that are visible (and required) based of the selection in my first option field.
All of those would be then include the numbers from 0 to 9 (Representing the 0100)
And so on. 
A User then can click the first dropdown, gets a selection from 1 to 5, another dropdown becomes visible with options from 1 to 9, another dropdown becomes visible... and so on.
The user could get to his number with 4 selections from 1 to 9 instead having a dropdown with 5800 options to scroll through.

This whole thing might also be archived better with a tagging structure instead of a custom metadata property?
Only existing values can be selected - but the user can use the autofill and the search function to get quicker to what he is looking for.

[kautuk_sahni]

@anurag_dang Did you find the suggestions from users helpful? Please let us know if more information is required. Otherwise, please mark the answer as correct for posterity. If you have found out solution yourself, please share it with the community.

[krishna_garikapati]

The issue is due to "sling.default.max.parameters" and "request.max.file.count" limits. By default the this value is set to 10K to limit the DDoS attacks. You can raise this limit in OSGI configuration but this is not a viable solution.

I would suggest the below.
1. If the metadata is coming from other integrated products such as Workfront. maintain these fields in Workfront or other systems and have the value stored as a text field or tag in AEM(DAM). This will be a solution if it's intended to not modify anything directly in AEM.
2. Restructure and segregate your data so you can split the metadata schema into multiple and apply them at folder level(it is not possible to apply multiple metadata schemas to a single folder).
3. Raise a field service engagement with adobe to understand your scenario and suggest solution.

Adobe is already aware of this limitation and they should defiantly work on a permanent fix.