Dealing with Cascading Lookups in Nintex Forms

I recently had a requirement where I had two lookup fields on my Nintex Form where one had to be filtered by the other, and both had to allow multiple selection.

I thought that this was going to be really difficult to implement, and was using all sorts of disconnected controls in order to try and achieve the result, and then I discovered that Nintex Forms just works when you use list column types "Lookup".

Wanted to share with everyone how powerful this was, and hoped it may help with this thread:

https://community.nintex.com/message/45415?et=watches.email.thread#comment-45415

So I have the following lists:

Custom List: luDivisions

Fields: Title

Custom List: luBusinessUnits

Fields: Title, Parent Division

Parent Division = Lookup to luDivisions:Title

Finally I have my main list, where I want to use the Nintex Form to capture data:

Custom List: Demo Lookups

Fields: Title, Division(s), Business Unit(s)

Division(s) = Lookup to luDivisions:Title, allow multiple

Business Unit(s) = Lookup to luBusinessUnits:Title, allow multiple

Then in Demo Lookups I customise my form using Nintex Forms designer.

The out of the box form gives me this:

So I want the Business Unit(s) to be filtered by the Division(s) so I double click the control for Business Unit(s) and add the following configuration:

Now when I add a new item, the Business Unit(s) list is dynamic based on the Division(s) list. Seems so clever yet is so simple!

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How can I get the lookup list control to always display in edit mode. Below you can see the difference between the control in edit and view mode. We like the edit mode look with the multi-check boxes. The View mode is really ugly.

View Mode

Edit Mode

To achieve this you can select the Edit mode for the runtime in List Lookup Control settings:

With the above setting the checkboxes should appear in both Display and Edit mode. You are basically forcing that control to be always in Edit mode (i.e. when checkboxes are displayed) no matter of the form mode.

Well, the "Training Days" lookup list control on the top is working well in view mode when I change the control mode to edit which is great. However the Training Completed list lookup that filters based on Day selected above is not displaying in view mode .

I figured it out!! The filtering won't work, but I can deal with that. Thanks for your help Pavol Novak. I had to change the "Action when no filter applied" Filtering option to "Show all values" to get the control to show as edit mode when the form is opened in view mode! Wahoo, you made my day much better.

Do you have any idea why there is a huge gap between the lookup list control and the save/cancel button. I cannot figure it out. There are no panels or rules to hide fields on this form and the save and cancel button is underneath the lookup control when I edit the form. ?? Cassy Freeman

Thanks Cassy, good explanation - i didnt know this would also work with multi-select field type. It was never part of the requirement in my part of the business, we only needed to select one value fgrom the first lookup to filter the next. It also works with three fields as im sure you are aware. Not sure if there is a limit to number you can set up in Nintex Forms or if the sharepoint limitations on the number of lookups in one list hits first?

Emily Spradlin‌ -

I am glad you got things working!

For the large amount of white space you have at the bottom of your form, this is because your list lookup control is being filtered and some of the possible selections are being filtered out. The control itself remains the same size in the event that the filtered choices become visible.

If you want it to resize, in the designer, make the control as small as you want and it will resize if there are more choices.

Example:

Form in Designer: