Keep order of selected entries "Smart multi-select"
Asked by Stefan Vogt:

Dear all!

Form A contains a list of authors using field type "Text". Form B contains the title of a publication (of type "Text") and a field of type "Smart multi-select" that chooses the authors from From A. So form B is like the following:

Row 1: \[Author 5, Author 3, Author 6\] \[Text of title\]

Row 2: \[Author **3** , Author **1** , Author **4**\] \[Text of title\]

Row 3: \[Author 2, Author 1\] \[Text of title\]

Unfortunately if If we read out the data of Form B the order of authors as selected during registration is not maintained. So e.g.

Row 2: \[Author **1** , Author **4** , Author **3**\] \[Text of title\]

I think they are always ordered according to their UUID (or the timestamp when created?\`).

Can Confiforms provide a way to maintain the order as inserted during registration?

Looking forward any hint to solve this issue!

Stefan


Answers:
author: Stefan Vogt
body: Dear all!

I don't know why but after setting the "With lookup" control the order according to the selection is maintained.

![grafik.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/186561iE8740B5B08C2E122/image-dimensions/234x348?v=v2 "grafik.png")

Two entries of the form to show you it works well!

![grafik.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/186562iCBF06354B989F419/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "grafik.png")

![grafik.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/186563iD929972728FE429C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "grafik.png")

comments: author: Alex Medved _ConfiForms_
body: This is not a smart multi-select field, but a smart multi-row field in ConfiForms.

Totally different thing

But I am glad you have solved your problem


author: Stefan Vogt
body: Alex you are so right! I was confusing by my first question when i told about the "Smart multi select". Sorry for the misconception.

Regarding the rendering:

Is there a way to get a rendering by table, plain or clean view that gives the following?

Name Author 1, Surname Author 1; Name Author 2, Surname Author 2; Name Author i, Surname Author i; \[...\] Titel of publication

All the best!

Stefan


author: Alex Medved _ConfiForms_
body: Hi

Do you set the "sorting" parameter on the smart multi-select field?

Leaving it empty will take the data as it is stored, specifying it will sort the options by label either DESC or ASC way

Alex

comments: author: Stefan Vogt
body: Dear Alex!

For the field "Smart multi-select" in the Form B there is no sorting activated.

![Zwischenablage01.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/185051iA66912EC8027716B/image-dimensions/192x219?v=v2 "Zwischenablage01.jpg")

The question is not to sort it by DESC/ASC or according to "as stored in Form A".

Entries of Form A are:

Author 1  
Author 2  
Author 3  
Author 4  
Author 5  
Author 6

The view of the field "Smart multi-select" should give the order according to the selection of the entries of the field "Smart multi-select" during registration of Form B. So if "Author **3** , Author **1** , Author **4**" was selected it should maintain this order and not use DESC/ASC or according to "as stored in Form A".

Stefan


author: Alex Medved _ConfiForms_
body: Are you talking about the order if the values within the multi-select itself?

There is no order really - does not matter how you select the values into the field


author: Stefan Vogt
body: Yes. The order of how the entries of the field type "Smart multi-select" are displayed by e.g. Table view or Plain view.

Stef


Tags: confiforms

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