A dropdown lets a submitter pick from a controlled list of values. The list comes from the picklist you choose in the field’s Picklist setting. The field stores the option code; the picklist owns the options themselves.
When to use it
Use a dropdown when the valid values are a bounded, governed vocabulary that you want to control centrally:- Channels, mediums, regions, product lines, business units.
- Any value you want consistent across every record so reports group cleanly.
- Selections that should narrow based on an earlier choice (a cascade).
Static
A hand-authored list. Flat or hierarchical.
Hierarchical
Parent-to-child options for cascading dropdowns.
Automated
Options derived live from another taxonomy’s records.
Settings reference
You set these in the field’s Dropdown settings. Picklist is required; everything else is optional.
Required is in the field’s General section, with the settings every field shares. The option list is closed: submitters pick from the picklist’s published options and cannot add values from inside a form. If the field’s values change too fast for a curated list, use a Text field with Suggest from past entries instead of a dropdown.
Single vs. multiple
By default a dropdown takes one value. Turn on Enable multi-select mode to let submitters pick several. When it is on:- Min choices and Max choices bound how many they may select. Leave either blank for no bound.
- The selected codes are joined with the Separator (a comma by default) when the value is stored.
- Default value accepts several options rather than one.
Conditional picklists
Sometimes the right list of options depends on what was entered elsewhere. Add one or more rules under Picklist Rules with Add First Rule (then Add New Rule). Each rule reads “Use this picklist WHEN this condition holds”, where a condition compares another field with is, is not, is one of, is not one of, contains, does not contain, is empty, or is not empty. Terminus Hub evaluates the rules top to bottom and uses the first one that matches. If none match, it falls back to the field’s Picklist. For example, a Sub-channel dropdown could show a “Paid sub-channels” list when Channel ispaid, and an “Organic sub-channels” list otherwise. Drag rules to reorder them and control precedence.
Example
In the Campaign URL Builder, UTM Medium is a single-select dropdown over a static picklist of mediums (email, social, cpc):
A multi-select Audiences dropdown that requires one to three picks looks like this:
When a submitter picks
prospects and existing, the record stores prospects,existing.
Gotchas
- The dropdown stores the code, not the label. Reports and links use the option code. Keep codes stable: changing a code leaves existing records pointing at the old value.
- A record keeps the label it had at approval. Renaming an option’s display label changes what new submissions show. Records approved earlier keep the label they captured at approval, including in API responses and outbound connector payloads.
- Multi-select is narrow. Use Enable multi-select mode only with a static, flat picklist on a dropdown that is not part of a cascade.
- A parent dropdown’s picklist is locked. When other fields depend on a dropdown, its picklist cannot be changed (“The picklist is locked because other fields depend on this one”). Check the field’s Usage tab to see which fields depend on it.
- Conditional rules and cascades both filter. If a field has picklist rules and is also part of a cascade, both narrow the options at once, so an over-tight combination can leave a submitter with nothing to choose.
- Submitters cannot add values. A dropdown only ever accepts its picklist’s published options; there is no setting that lets a submitter type a new one. When free entry is the right shape, make the field a Text field with Suggest from past entries. See Letting submitters enter new values.