select

A select field allows a list of options where a user can select one value.

Module field definition

// Configuring the `theme` field in a module's `fields.add` subsection:
theme: {
  label: 'Select a color scheme for this page',
  type: 'select',
  choices: [
    {
      label: 'Dark 🌚',
      value: 'dark'
    },
    {
      label: 'Light 💡',
      value: 'light'
    },
    {
      label: 'Dusk 🌆',
      value: 'dusk'
    }
  ]
}

Settings

Required

Property	Type	Default	Description
choices	Array or String	n/a	An array of options that the editor can select from, or a method name that returns them. See below.
label	String	n/a	Sets the visible label for the field in the UI
type	String	n/a	Specifies the field type (select for this type)

Optional

Property	Type	Default	Description
autocomplete	String	n/a	Sets the value of the autocomplete attribute on the field.
def	Varies	n/a	The default value for the field. Must be from the defined choices' values.
help	String	n/a	Help text for the content editor
htmlHelp	String	n/a	Help text with support for HTML markup
if	Object	{}	Conditions to meet before the field is active. See the guide for details.
requiredIf	Object	{}	Conditions to meet before the field is required. See the guide for details.
hidden	Boolean	false	If true, the field is hidden
required	Boolean	false	If true, the field is mandatory
readOnly	Boolean	false	If true, prevents the user from editing the field value

choices configuration

The choices setting in checkboxes, radio, or select fields configures the options that a user will see in the interface and the values that the server will allow in validation. The choices value is an array of objects with label and value properties.

• value is used in the field's database value
• label is the more human-readable version used in interfaces

Populating choices dynamically

What if the choices aren't known in advance? Then you can fetch them dynamically.

First, set the choices option to the name of a method in your module. Pass a string, the name of the method you'll implement on the server side — do not pass a function.

Second, implement that method in your module so that it takes (req, data) arguments and return an array of choices in the usual format. You may use an async function, or return a promise that will resolve to the array. That means you can reach out to APIs using modules like axios or node-fetch, or make Apostrophe database queries.

The data argument is an object containing the parent's docId for further inspection by your function.

It is usually a good idea to perform at least short-term caching in your choices method, in order to limit the impact on performance when editing.

autocomplete

The string supplied to the autocomplete option is used as the value of the autocomplete attribute for the field, as specified in the HTML standards. This feature suggests possible values based on user inputs and previously entered data, streamlining data entry and improving form usability. This also takes a string of off to disable autocomplete for sensitive fields. For detailed information on how the autocomplete attribute works and the values it accepts, refer to the MDN documentation on autocomplete.

Use in templates

Select field data is stored as the string value property of the selected choice.

{{ data.page.theme }}