What is the best practice for registering 500 or more choices in a Catalog Item SelectBox?

[nagaryu]

I am trying to create a drop-down type option in a Catalog Item. There are more than 500 options.

Each option has a set amount, and the amount is updated once a year, and options are added or deleted.

I would like to know the best practice for implementing this.

I currently have two ideas.

1. Create a SelectBox type field and register more than 500 options in [Question Choices].

2. Create a custom table and set the options, amounts, and Active=True/False flags there. Then create a Reference type field in the Catalog Item and set the reference to the custom table.

In either case, the data will be created in Excel and imported using Easy Import.

Using a custom table would consume one table, and I would like to avoid this because I would need to check the impact when upgrading, but when I take maintainability and performance into consideration, I think it might be better to use it...

Of course, I would also be happy to hear any other solutions beyond the two above.

Please advise me on what method would be preferable.

[Ankur Bawiskar · Accepted solution]

@nagaryu 

I will still suggest to use custom table as using 500 options and asking user to scroll that much is not a good user experience.

At least with reference variable they can see and apply filter to select the correct value.

Maintenance wise also it's easy as you can use data source, import etc on your custom table to manage the values.

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[Ankur Bawiskar · Accepted solution]

@nagaryu 

I will still suggest to use custom table as using 500 options and asking user to scroll that much is not a good user experience.

At least with reference variable they can see and apply filter to select the correct value.

Maintenance wise also it's easy as you can use data source, import etc on your custom table to manage the values.

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[Abhishek_Thakur · Accepted solution]

Hello @nagaryu ,

I did encounter the same with one of my client, where we recommended of we are using the more than values and it is not constant, it might change then we should go ahead and create one table to store all the values and make it reference for the catalog items. That is recommended as per the best practise.

Give thumbs up! and please mark my solution accepted, if it helps you. So, that it can help others if they would encounter same issue.

Regards,

Abhishek Thakur

[nagaryu]

Hi @Ankur Bawiskar @Abhishek_Thakur ,

Thank you for your reply!

I see, so using a custom table is desirable.
I'm glad to hear that there are actually cases where customers have done this in the past.
The final decision will depend on the customer's wishes, but we will try to make a proposal that is in line with best practices as much as possible.
Thank you very much.