Use Dynamic fields to create dropdowns, checkboxes, and radio buttons that are dynamically populated with submitted entries or with categories/taxonomies. Dynamic fields can link entries together and allow users to make selections from data entered in other Formidable forms. Values submitted in Dynamic fields stay linked to the original entry, so that if selections in the original entry are updated, so too are the values in the Dynamic field.

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Standard field options

A Dynamic field has the following standard options.

• Field type
• Required
• Unique
• Read Only
• Field key
• CSS layout classes
• Label position
• Visibility
• Conditional logic
• Dynamic default value

Field-specific options

Load options from

To load options into your Dynamic field from entries submitted in another Formidable form, select Form Entries in the Load Options From dropdown. Nothing is selected in this dropdown by default. Then choose the form to load from, and the field in that form to load the options from.

To populate a Dynamic field with post categories, see how to add hierarchical categories.

Display type

After you pick which options to load in your Dynamic field, choose how to show them in the Display Type dropdown: Dropdown, Radio Buttons, Checkboxes, or List. Dropdown is the default.

A Dynamic List field displays a value when it has conditional logic that depends on a Dynamic dropdown, radio button, or checkbox field. It doesn't store a value, so this field type isn't available in View or email options.

Dynamic List fields are designed to use conditional logic based on a parent Dynamic field. Set the List field to use the same form that the parent field uses.

For example, a form has a Name field used in a Dynamic dropdown and an Email field used in a Dynamic List field. When a name is selected, its email address shows.

See this example in Dynamically display values from selected entry.

Images

A Lookup or Dynamic field can show its options as images. It does this automatically when the Display Type is Radio Buttons or Checkboxes and the options come from a field that uses images. The source can be a Radio Buttons, Checkboxes, or Product field with image options, or a File Upload field.

These settings then appear in the field options:

• Image option label: Shown only when the options come from a File Upload field. Choose another field from the form the options come from to label each image, or keep File name to use the name of the uploaded file.
• Image Size: Choose Small, Medium, Large, or Extra Large. Small is the default.
• Hide option labels: Check this box to show the images without their text labels.

With a File Upload source, the options show as images only when most of the uploaded files are images.

Limit entries

When you load entries from a form, limit the options to entries created by the user who is filling out the form. To do so, check the Limit options to those created by the current user box in the field options. This box is unchecked by default, and it works for logged-in users only.

Option order

The options are sorted in ascending order by default. To change this, choose Ascending (A-Z), Descending (Z-A), or No order set in the Option order dropdown.

Set up cascading fields

You may use Dynamic fields to set up cascading fields. This works well for a country/state/city scenario where the available options are filtered by the value selected in a previous field. Lookup fields also provide this option and there are benefits to using Lookup fields in many situations. Review the differences between Lookups and Dynamic fields to determine which is best for your setup. The biggest differences between the two field types is that Dynamic fields require a separate form for each cascading field and they store the entry ID, where as Lookup fields do not. Follow the steps below to set up a cascading country/state/city setup.

1. Create a new form titled 'Country'. Add a Text or Dropdown field. Title it 'Country'. Click Update, then use Preview to submit an entry for each country option that you want to have available or import the countries.
2. Create a new form titled 'State'. Add a Dynamic field and give it the Field Label 'Country'. Its Display Type is Dropdown by default. Set it up to get its options from the Country form > Country field. Add a Text or Dropdown field. Title it 'State'. Click Update, then use Preview to submit an entry for each country and state combination that you want to have available, or import the countries and states.
3. Create a new form titled 'City'. Add a Dynamic field labeled 'Country' and set it up to get its options from the Country form > Country field. Add a second Dynamic field labeled 'State' and set it up to get its options from the State form > State field. Click Update to save the form. The Anything option in conditional logic appears only after the source Dynamic field is saved. Add conditional logic on the State field so it shows only when Country equals Anything. Add a Text or Dropdown field. Title it 'City'. Click Update, then use Preview to submit an entry for each country, state, and city combination that you want to have available, or import the countries, states, and cities.
4. Go into the form that your end user will interact with, or create a new form. Add a Dynamic field labeled 'Country' and set it up to get its options from the Country form > Country field. Add a second Dynamic field labeled 'State' and set it up to get its options from the State form > State field. Add a third Dynamic field labeled 'City' and set it up to get its options from the City form > City field. Click Update to save the form.
5. Add conditional logic on the State field so it shows only when Country equals Anything.
6. Add conditional logic on the City field. Select All. Then add two conditions: Country equals Anything, and State equals Anything. Click Update to save your changes.

Populate fields with values from selected entry

Use a Dynamic field to automatically populate fields based on a selected entry. You need 3 forms: the source form that holds the entries, the 'Select entry' form where the user picks an entry, and the form to autofill. Learn how to populate fields from a selected entry with a Lookup field instead.

1. Publish the form that you want to autofill on a page. Copy the URL of this page.
2. Create a new form called 'Select entry'. This form is where the user will make their entry selection.
   • Add a Dynamic field. Its Display Type is Dropdown by default.
   • Set it to 'Load options from: Form Entries, -the form you want to pull values from-, any field'
     

     

3. In the 'Select entry' form, go to Settings → Actions & Notifications.

   

   1. Under Current Actions, click the Confirmation action to open it.
   2. Select Redirect to URL.
   3. In the Redirect URL box, paste the URL copied in step 1 and add ?pass_entry=[x show=key] to the end. Replace x with the ID of the Dynamic field.

   

   Click Update to save your changes.
4. Go into the form that you want to autofill and click the field to fill in. Under Advanced:
   1. Turn on Calculate Value.
   2. Select Text.
   3. In the Field Formula box, put [frm-field-value field_id=x entry=pass_entry]. Replace x with the Key or ID of the field in the source form that you want to pull the value from.

   

   Repeat for each field to fill in. Then click Update.
5. Now when the user submits the 'Select entry' form, it will populate fields with values from the selected entry.
   

   

Dynamically display values from selected entry

Display values from the entry a visitor selects in a Dynamic field.

1. Create a new form or go into edit an existing form.
2. Add a Dynamic field. Its Display Type is Dropdown by default. This will be the field where users will select a value from a submitted entry. Set it up to load options from 'Form Entries'. In the next dropdown that appears, select another form on your site, then select any field in that form.
   

   

   
   Set up this field to display as a dropdown, radio button, or checkbox.
3. Add a second Dynamic field and set its Display Type to List. This will be used to display information from the entry selected in the previous Dynamic field. Set it up to load options from 'Form Entries'. In the next dropdown, select the same form that you selected in the previous Dynamic field's options. Select any field from that form.
   

   

   
   Click Update to save the form so the Anything option is available in conditional logic. Then add conditional logic that says 'Show this field if any of the following match: First Dynamic field equals Anything'.
   

   

4. Try it out! Publish your form on a page. When you select an entry from the first Dynamic field, a value from the selected entry will appear in the Dynamic List field.
   

   

Display Dynamic field values

You can use the following shortcodes to display a variety of information from a Dynamic field in a form's confirmation message, email notification, or View.

• Value from linked entry: Display a field value from the linked entry.

  [x show="y"]

  Replace x with the ID of your Dynamic field and replace y with the ID of any field in the linked form.

• Creation date: Display the creation date of the linked entry.

  [x show="created-at"]

  Replace x with the ID of your Dynamic field

• Entry ID: Display the ID of the linked entry.

  [x show="id"]

  Replace x with the ID of your Dynamic field

• User ID information: Show information from the profile of the user who submitted the linked entry. You may use all of User ID shortcode options here.

  [x show="user_email"]

  Replace x with the ID of your Dynamic field.

• Three level entry information: If you have a Dynamic field that pulls from another Dynamic field, you can display information from the form that the second Dynamic field pulls from. You can use any of the above options to display information from the third level form.

  [x show="y" show_info="z"]

  Replace x with the ID of your Dynamic field, and replace y with the ID of the Dynamic field in the linked form. Replace z with the ID of the field you want to show from the form that the second Dynamic field pulls from. You can also replace z with "created-at", "id", or "user_email".

• Option Label: Display the option label instead of the saved value. This differs from the value only when the field that the Dynamic field pulls from is a Dropdown, Radio Buttons, or Checkboxes field with Use separate values turned on.

  [x show="label"]

  Replace x with the ID of your Dynamic field.

Additional Customizations

Dynamic draft entries

As of version 5.4, dynamic fields will no longer include data from draft entries. You can use the frm_dynamic_field_include_drafts hook to include both drafts and non draft entries or draft entries only.

Related developer hooks

• Sort your Dynamic field options by the order the entries were added with the frm_data_sort hook.
• Remove duplicate values with the frm_data_sort hook.
• Only include categories with no parent with the frm_get_categories hook.
• Change the order of options set to list categories/taxonomies with the frm_get_categories hook.
• Dynamically select the option created by the current user with the frm_get_default_value hook.
• Search linked field for numeric values with the frm_search_for_dynamic_text hook.
• Filter the options with the frm_setup_new_fields_vars hook.
• Show admin all options in a filtered dynamic field with the frm_setup_new_fields_vars hook.
• Display two fields with the frm_setup_new_fields_vars hook.
• Change the blank option label with the frm_setup_new_fields_vars hook.
• Remove all used options with the frm_setup_new_fields_vars hook.
• Remove option used variable times with the frm_setup_new_fields_vars hook.
• Customize the HTML displayed in a Dynamic List field with the frm_show_it hook.
• Show full image instead of thumbnail in a Dynamic List field with the frm_show_it hook.
• Show option label with the frm_show_it hook.
• Get the text value from a Dynamic field and copy it over to a second field with the frm_validate_field_entry hook.
• Filter by User ID with the frm_where_filter hook.