Can we pull values using Drop Down tool from a connected tool in a macro?

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to build an app with a drop down tool and have it list all the available survey titles that we want to pull results for via API. Apparently, when using macros, we can only pull field names and not values. Is there a workaround for this?

apathetichell · Answer

@jwlam...

two things.

1) to display dropdowns in a listbox or a dropdown via a connected tool you are display the COLUMN NAMES as values --- not the values. my recommendation is some kind of transpose/tile tool/unique value of your name field. then crosstab, where your tile sequence number becomes your column ns and name becomes your value --- then dynamic rename to take values from your first row.

2) having said that to use this dynamically you want CHAINED APP. APP 1 PULLS THE API --- APP 2 USES A YXDB FILE YOU CREATE IN APP 1.

KGT · Answer

Just wanted to highlight the last sentence in the reply by @DanM. This will not be dynamic. It won't be the last run either, it will be the last run when the app is saved/uploaded.

DanM · Answer

@jwlam  you are using the correct technique to give the user options to choose from. In the Summarize tool are you concatenating what you want to display to the user and then what will actually update the tool? For example, if I wanted users to pick a fruit and then that fruit had an id that would update my workflow the data going into the drop down would need to be Apple: 12345. The user would see Apple but the tool would update with 12345. They also could be the same value.

This technique however will only display what been run prior to the original run. If need the drop down to update, you will want to look at creating a chained app where the first app updates a file which then updates the drop down.