What is the best way to organize multiple dependant dropdown options.

[FTong]

Newbee here... 

What is the best way to organize multiple dependant drop downs in appsheet that facilitates management of the options? 

Say  we have a list of options with multiple dependant levels like the one shown below.   The options may change over time as materials and conditions are observed in the field.   

Is there a recommended way to organize this information that can be called from an Appsheet form that:

1-is not hard coded in the application

2-can be updated and expanded (or reduced) as conditions change? 

PS:  I found I can manage and update a two level dependant drop down using a "Reference Table", where one column holds the initial value, and the second column holds the dependant option.   However, I found that when more than two options are required, the administration and updating the "Reference Table"  becomes an issue due to complexity.

Any ideas would be appreciated.   

@Matt 

Repair:

     -Masonry:

           -Lintel

               - Door / Window

                      -Interior/ Exterior

               -Reinforcement

              -Concrete

                      -Mix Design

                      - Strength

                     - Water Cement Ratio

                    - Admixture

                         -Silicate

                             -Qty

                         -Hydroxy

                              -Qty

           -Tie COlumn 

                - Interior / Exterior / corner 

          -Basement wall

[TeeSee1]

One possible way is to create a BoM (Bill of Materials) table.

In the Dropdown's Suggested Values I have

SELECT(BOM[id],
 AND(
  [parent_id]= IF(ISBLANK([_THIS]),[_THISROW].[type],[_THIS]),
  [level] <> 0
 )
)

I have the Type field to select the top level item, but of course this can be changed.

The key is to have parent-children relations within the same table.

(For this use case, I did not have to use the level col.)

Hope this will help you explore further ideas.

 

[FTong]

TeeSee1, 

Thank you for your prompt response to my inquiry. 

I review your response and have a couple of questions/comments: 

1. I think I understand the concept of assigning a parentID column to the table. Visually looks a lot simpler than my original idea... (Thanks!)  I need to review this a little more to get the hang of it. 
2. In some cases may end up having drop downs that have options 3 and 4 deep.  How would be a way to include this in a form.? 
3. Also, I am looking for a way to manage the multi-level dropdowns items so they be added (and removed) as required.  Do you have any suggestions on how to do this... I am having problems visualizing how to do it in a form....

Thank you in advance for your help.... 

PS:  how do you create the dynamic images showing the screen you include in your responses... It would be great to include as part of the questions in the future... (a picture equals a thousand words... you are including a movie... that is almost a book chapter!!!  LOL... - Hope is not too complicated... )

[TeeSee1]

• The easy answer first. I use ScreenToGif to capture screen animation.
• How you manage this multi-level table.
  • You can simply manage them thru a table view or directly in gSheet (or whatever underlying data store you are using)
• How to include in a form
  • The sample screen is already in a Form. I need to understand what you are looking for in more detail. What I had in mind was that you have tasks to perform. Then in each task you have task items, however many, where you pick the item you worked on and enter a value appropriate to that item. So the Form I shared would in fact would be the form to capture the work item. I have not shown a field to capture the value but it can be easily done by adding another col, say 'value required', and show the field to prompt users to enter a value.

Hope this clarifies this a bit more.