External Lookup Fields

[BruceMe7]

Hello,

I am trying to get an external lookup field for a dropdown. I want only certain fields to be able to be viewed based upon the selection that is made. For example we have a multiple select drop down, so I want for if a value is selected we have a display logic field that pop up but looking for 3 out of the 10 fields in the following field to appear and not the entire list. I hope that makes sense and looking forward to feedback.

[Madalyn_Destafney]

Hi Bruce, here is documentation about external lookups.

[KatherineLa]

Hi Bruce,

If I'm understanding correctly, you want to have a primary drop-down that's something like

DE: Baked Goods:

• Cookies
• Cakes
• Cupcakes

And then based on which type of baked good the user selects, to have a second "Flavors" drop-down that only shows valid flavors for cookies versus cakes versus cupcakes?

If so, I've built something like that though it's definitely not straight-forward. Let me know if I'm describing your ask correctly and I can elaborate then.

[BruceMe7]

Hello @KatherineLa,

You are 100 percent correct, would you have any examples to help with creating this? Your right this has been very challenging for me to build but I feel as though it will have with the workflows my company is trying to build.

[Sven-iX]

Hi @BruceMe7 

what you describe can't be done: Using an external lookup to drive display logic. To use display logic (ie hiding/showing fields based on the value of a field above them)  "you must add a radio button, dropdown, or checkbox field to the form anywhere above this form item."

Sadly an external lookup field is not counted as a dropdown, not even a type-ahead field. The reason likely is that the form editor needs to pull in the dropdown options to display the UI (so you can select the value based on which other fields are shown/hidden) - and for typeaheads and external lookups there is no fixed list of values because they depend on an API call.

So if you want display logic: you have to use simple dropdowns. 

What @KatherineLa is alluding to is a solution around this: Instead of display logic, a way to make the second dropdown, also an external lookup, dependent on the value of the first external lookup: 

This approach passes the value of the dependency DE:Campaign Name into the query.
If you must use external lookups this is the way to reduce choices in dropdown #2 based on the choice(s) made in dropdown #1.
Does that help?