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MClovisMClovis 

Help with drop-down lists

Hi - I have a number of fields on a custom object that have the same drop-down list. Is there a way to have multiple fields select from the same drop-down list in salesforce? I realize I could create another object and create a lookup field but I'd prefer to have a drop-down list. Can anyone help?


werewolfwerewolf
It sounds like what you're looking for is a Universal Picklist, a highly-requested feature on the AppExchange which is not yet available.
MClovisMClovis
Thanks werewolf. Is it me or does salesforce.com have some severe shortcomings for a supposed database platform on-demand?
werewolfwerewolf
Sometimes there are shortcomings, but then again, you can generally develop applications in Salesforce.com much faster than you can with traditional databases, plus Salesforce.com transparently releases functionality pretty frequently.  That idea is so highly rated that it may just show up one day soon, and you'll be able to use it from day 1.  There aren't too many other platforms you can say that about.

Have you considered using lookups for those custom fields (and turning on the dropdown lookups feature) rather than picklists?  That would solve your problem too.
MClovisMClovis
Yes I guess you're right. It's just that I run into these little roadblocks fairly frequently and it would be nice to have a more flexible architecture than is currently available.

Regarding your suggestion to use a lookup field & change the view to drop-down, this could work provided that changing the lookup view to drop-down can be limited to this field only. Is that possible? If so, how would I change the view?
werewolfwerewolf
The lookup wouldn't be a dropdown per se -- it would still be a lookup, but it would have a typeahead dropdown list kind of like what Google Suggest does.  You can limit these typeaheads to only this object, but not to individual fields.
SteveBowerSteveBower

Yes but....   Isn't that just the kind of thing that gets you into trouble later?

Using a lookup in lieu of a picklist may work for now, but later, assuming picklists get better, you may want to revert to that.  Perhaps that won't be an issue, but perhaps you'll have other things written by then that assume there is a lookup there.  After all, your development isn't going to hold still.  Perhaps you'll find that you want to take advantage of other Salesforce features.  For example, you may need record types and record-type specific Picklists, or perhaps you'll want to introduce dependant picklists for some of the fields, etc.  You can configure those now if you stay with Picklists, but not if you use Lookups. 

I'm not saying this won't work, just that it's a questionable practice to workaround a product feature deficiency by using a component that wasn't designed to solve that problem.  It also cuts you off of the capabilities that *do* exists for the feature, even if it's not as complete as you might want.

In my opinion you'd be better served by "sucking it up" and just duplicating the picklists.  

Yes it sucks, and yes, you're right, Salesforce is an immature platform for many things and it's often frustrating.  Just because you *can* rewrite the UI using S-Controls (which is what was needed awhile ago) and now Apex (which made all that s-control work obsolete) doesn't mean you should have to.  Salesforce saves you a lot of time in many instances, but you're stuck with their limitations as well.

My $.02.    Best, Steve.
MClovisMClovis
Thanks for the feedback. I think we're going to stick with the picklists for now. Why doesn't salesforce.com just incorporate a drop-down editor like sugarcrm provides? That way you could create the drop down once and grab it for any and all objects. Seems more efficient that way.