How to do Dynamic Dropdowns?

Question

I have a custom list. Inside the custom list I want the user to have a choice drop down. Based on their selection, I'd like to change the values of a 2nd drop down further in the list item.

To demonstrate the use case: We have two books, the list asks the user which book you are referencing, and then which chapter. I want to be able to make the chapter drop down, dynamically change to the appropriate chapters based on your book selection.

Answer 1

What you are looking here is Cascading Dropdown, you would need to create your lists design to implement this kind of requirement.

1. Create Master List - Books Minimum Columns required - BookName

2. Create Master List - Chapters. Minimun columns required - ChapterName, BookName BookName column should be lookup column to above Books list and BookName Column.

3. And then you will have your reference list- Custom List(this you already have)

Minimum columns required - Title, BookName, ChapterName

BookName column should be lookup to above Books list and BookName Column.

ChapterName column should be lookup to above Chapters list and Column ChapterName.

Implemeted Cascading dropdown list funtionality like below.

Deployment is simple: 1. Upload JavaScript file to your SharePoint site (any document or master page library)

2. in IE open the SharePoint form where you want to implement cascading dropdowns

3. Insert a Content Editor WebPart into the page after the form (how? Instructions here)

4. Edit properties of the webpart and edit its source code.

5. Link Script to the page

   < script type="text/javascript" src="[path_to_your]/spcd.js">

6. Add a JavaScript block with configurations

       var ccd1 = new cascadeDropdowns(ParentDropDownTitle, ChildDropDownTitle, Child2ParentFieldIntName, ChildListNameOrGuid, ChildLookupTargetField);
     </script>
   

Refer this link for more details

Answer 2

You can achieve that easily with SPServices. There are many blog posts explaining this. Here's a video about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0L9cnSvVjA