Choice input

Learn how to create a choice input.

Choice input

Choice input at a glance

A choice input lets the user select one or more items from a list. Here's a single choice input with only the required parameter(s):

color = ChoiceInput(
  | question = Please choose
  | choices = Red, Green, Blue
)

Here's a multi-choice input with only the required parameter(s):

colors = ChoiceInput(
  | question = Please choose
  | choices = Red, Green, Blue
  | multiple
)

Given below is another choice input with all the available parameters. The parameter names are case insensitive, and the ones without values after = are boolean parameters. You can find details about all of them in the available parameters section.

colors* = ChoiceInput(
  | question = Please choose
  | choices = Red, Green, Blue
  | multiple
  | checked = Green, Blue
  | description = Some description
  | horizontal
  | fieldSize = sm
  | subfield
  | autofocus
  | disabled
)

Basics of a form field

A form field is a Markdown paragraph in the following format:

{fieldName}{optionalAsterisk} = {fieldType}(
  {parameters}
)

• The {fieldName} is the name of the input. It is used as the key for the value of the input in the form data (which is submitted as JSON). The {fieldName} can also be used to reference the input's value in the template. It must adhere to the following rules:

  • Not start with a number

  • Not contain a dash or hyphen (-)

  • Not contain a space

• The {optionalAsterisk} is an * which (if provided) indicates that the field is required. If this is omitted, then the field becomes optional.

• The {fieldType} must be one of the following: TextInput, EmailInput, TelInput, NumberInput, SelectBox, ChoiceInput, PictureChoice, RatingInput or OpinionScale (case insensitive).

For example, here's a required email input form field with a class name added to the wrapping container:

[.col-6]
yourEmail* = EmailInput(
  | question = What is your email address?
  | description = Please make sure it's correct.
)

Your email is {$ yourEmail $}.

The following is not a valid form field because the empty line means that there are two Markdown paragraphs, and none of them follow the valid format:

address = TextInput(
  | question = What is your address?

  | description = ...
)

Parameters

Parameters are information provided within the (...) when creating form fields. They must be separated by the form-delimiter, which by default is |. The form-delimiter can be changed as a setting. For example, this would render the exact same email input from above:

#! form-delimiter = \\n

[.col-6]
yourEmail* = EmailInput(
  question = What is your email address?
  description = Please make sure it's correct.
)

Your email is {$ yourEmail $}.

Please note once again that parameter names are case insensitive, and boolean parameters only require their names to have effect (no need for values after =).

Available parameters

The following parameters are available for choice inputs:

question

The main question of the form field. Here, the question is placed inside a <legend> element, which in turn is placed inside the wrapping <fieldset>.

choices

List of available choices as CSV (comma separated values), for example:

color* = ChoiceInput(
  | choices = Red, Green, Blue
)

By default, the value of each choice is the same as the label. However, you can specify a custom value for a choice by putting it inside "...", and placing this before or after the label. For example:

color* = ChoiceInput(
  | question = Please choose
  | choices = Red "red", "g" Green, Blue
)

---
-> color == "g"

Your favorite color is Green.

Note how the jump condition (->) is using "g" instead of "Green", because g is the value and Green is the label. Only the label is shown to the user, so this is useful if you have labels which are long, readable, and/or descriptive, and values which are unique, short, usable, and/or programmatic. Here's another example where the labels are product names, and the values are machine-readable IDs:

product* = ChoiceInput(
  | question = What do you want to buy?
  | choices = Mango "SKU-1234-5678", Apple "SKU-8765-4321"
)

multiple

Boolean parameter. When set, allows the user to select more than one choice. In case of multi-choice inputs, checkboxes are used instead of radio buttons.

checked

If set and matches one or more choices, then the choices are checked by default. For instance, in the example below, choice y would be checked by default.

selection = ChoiceInput(
  | choices = x, y, z
  | checked = y
)

For multi-choice inputs, you can put in one or more values as CSV (comma separated values). In the example below, all three choices would be checked by default.

selections = ChoiceInput(
  | choices = x, y, z
  | multiple
  | checked = x, y, z
)

Please note, this parameter must match the value of the choice, not the label. So if you set a value using "..." (see above), then the checked must be set to this value. For example:

product* = ChoiceInput(
  | question = What do you want to buy?
  | choices = Mango "SKU-1234-5678", Apple "SKU-8765-4321"
  | checked = SKU-8765-4321
)

In the above example, the Apple choice would be checked by default.

description

Any extra information that the user may need to fill out the form.

horizontal

Boolean parameter. When set, the choices (checkboxes or radio buttons) are placed horizontally on a row with a maximum of three items per row (not applicable on phones because of screen size). The default orientation is vertical.

fieldSize

When set to sm, the font sizes of the question, description, and answer are made smaller. Can also be globally set via the #! field-size = sm setting.

subfield

Boolean parameter. When set, the question of the form field is made smaller. This is useful for creating subfields, especially inside .col-* classes. For example:

[.form-question]
What is your address?

[.col-8]
city* = TextInput(
  | question = City | subfield | placeholder = New York
)

[.col-4]
zip* = TextInput(
  | question = Zip | subfield | placeholder = 10001
)

autofocus

Boolean parameter. When set, the first choice (checkbox or radio button) will be automatically focused when the parent slide becomes active, or immediately after page load (in case of single page layout). Can also be globally set via the #! autofocus = all-slides setting (only for slides).

disabled

Boolean parameter. When set, all the choices (checkboxes or radio buttons) are disabled.