It’s sometimes useful to have two fields which are linked and respond to one another (School, and then Department are one such coupling, or City and District). In this article we’ll show how this can be done and also what the result will look like on the form.

Head to Scheme settings and then click on Signup form. You’ll see the above with the available field types on the left (Information, Text, Date Picker etc.) and the form layout on the right. In order to link two fields together, you’ll first need a dropdown field.

Populate the dropdown with a few items, and configure the options. For a guide on this, see What types of fields can I add to my signup form? and Adding fields to the scheme signup form. If you’re satisfied, click the cross to collapse the dropdown field options. Now you’ll need to add in another dropdown field so that we can link them.

Once you’ve finished adding the dropdown field and have added some options, add another dropdown field (where on the form isn’t important).

Once the dropdown field has been added, click on the dropdown next to Parent Dropdown. This will allow you to select the dropdown we created earlier to act as a parent. Once you’ve done this and configured the child dropdown’s options, you’re all set!

Preference fields work in a similar way when added to the form, linking to an existing field and using the same options. See How do I add a preference field to the signup form? for more details.

The parent and child dropdown elements will show as normal fields on the signup form.

Key points

👍 It’s only possible to link dropdown fields together. Other field types aren’t compatible

👍 Your form should only have a linked field if necessary - don't overdo it as this adds complexity and will reduce the likelihood of obtaining good matching scores

👍 Ensure there's a solid parent -> child relationship between the two fields to be matched