Global Variables: Select Options
Build one reusable list of choices for your dropdowns, selects, and radio buttons — typed by hand or pulled live from a table.
Select Options is a variable type built for one job: giving your dropdowns, selects, and radio buttons a single, reusable list of choices. Instead of retyping the same options into every field, you define the list once and point any number of fields at it.
Creating a Select Options variable
- In Form Studio, open Variables → + Add Variable.
- Set Type to Select Options and give it a name (for example,
status_options).
The description under Type explains it well: "A list of options for dropdowns and selects. Pull rows from a table (Load Data) or bind to an existing collection or field (Data Binding)."
- Click the Source dropdown. You have two ways to build the list:
- Load Data — pull the options live from a table (a Mergebase table or a connected app). This is the most common choice, and the one this guide walks through.
- Data Binding — bind the list to an existing collection or field elsewhere in your workflow.
Loading options from a table
- Choose Load Data. A Table field appears.
- Click Select a table to open the table picker. You can search, or browse Mergebase (your app's own tables) and any connected apps.
- Click Mergebase to see your available tables — Standard tables like Applications, Invoicing, Listings, and any custom tables you've created.
Pick the table that holds your options. Once selected, you'll be asked which column supplies the label (what people see) and which column supplies the saved value (what actually gets stored) — so the dropdown can show something readable while saving something precise underneath.
Click Save.
Using it in a field
Once your Select Options variable exists, open any Select or Radio field's Data Source settings and choose your variable as the source. The field will always show whatever rows are currently in that table — update the table, and every field using the variable updates automatically, with nothing to maintain by hand.
Related
- Global Variables — the overview of all three variable types and where to find the Variables menu.
- Global Variables: Variable & Constant — the simpler "single value" variable type, useful when you don't need a whole list of options.
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