A quite common task for developers / consultants in the CRM area is to provide drop down listboxes (DDLB) for the new Web Client UI. A DDLB is the perfect UI element for selecting a medium range of predefined data as it shows the user immediately what's available. While most of the tasks with respect to developing in the new UI are quite intuitive, creating DDLBs is not. "Au contraire" as Del Boy would say (Those of you who like British TV programme "Only Fools and Horses" know him well), the process takes a bit of insight. You will have to deal with so-called P and V getters in the component workbench. This hands on guide will help you find your way through it.
Basically you can create a DDLB in 2 different ways: You can provide the DDLB entries in your own method, in which you decide where the entiies come from and which ones to poick. Alternatively, you can bund the DDLB entry list also to a context node attribute. Here the context node will determine the contents of the entry list.
This is how you do it
Please be aware that DDLBs should be used with care: As all the possible entries need to be determined and be available at the frontend (your browser of choice) immediately, all of themneed to be transferred through the LAN / WAN that you are using. Thus, they have an impact on performance. The user has to wait longer until the screen becomes available, even though he/she might not even want to make a selection. Moreover, a large DDLB makes it harder for a user to find the desired entry. So, if you are looking at say a couple of hundred possible entries, an input field with an F4 help would be the better solution. It saves initial "rendering" time, meaning the screen becomes available for the user earlier as the infomration for the possible entries only need to be retrieved upon user request. Also on the F4 relsult list you have further options to find the entry you need by sorting.
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