ComboBox - Inputtextplaceholder always visible (like hinttext)

[KroonOfficeSol]

When you set the isSearchable option off a combobox to false then the inputTextPlaceHolder is not visible. See Attachment for picture off behaviour.

Please make this to behave like the hinttext on Textinput.

Result should be that the text is always visible with every setting.

[FilipK]

The idea here is to provide the user with a hint as to what they should be typing.  If they are not typing anthing, theyo should be able to get teh context from the displayed options.

Can you provide an example of where this would be useful when not using the search field?

[KroonOfficeSol]

As example I can think off a app without labels for my fields, in which case the hinttext should be enough for the user to know what to do. For the rest it's basically a matter off consistency in the appearance off controls. All other boxes got a hint text property, so why not the combobox. Btw, In general I don't like how the Combobox shows the selected item and the way how to unselect this selected item. Further I noticed that the search capability off the combobox doesn't always work like I expect, mostly because sometime the control resets the display and search parameters I put into them and the user sees a different column then he suppost to see. So in most cases I set the search property to false, add a textinputfield and filter the combobox based on the input. Basically I set the parameters to the behaviour off the dropdown control, with the possibility to set the selecteditem to blank/Null. There are several threats on add this functionality off beïng blank to the dropdown field, so maybe this is a good idea to realize this request also.

[bgarland]

I agree. Even with a realtively short list where the user doesn't need to search, I'd still like to be able to display text prompting them to make one or more selections.

[MichelH]

I also notice the isSearchable option is automatically set to false, (I guess) when it sees the combobox has an empty item list.

The isSearchable was set to a variable but this is bluntly overwritten by a false.

This happens to a second combobox of a pair of cascading comboboxes.

I don't need it to be searchable, but I do need the inputTextPlaceHolder to be visible when I set it, and I found setting the isSearchable option to true was the only way to make it display the inputTextPlaceHolder.

[FilipK]

The intention of the InputTextPlaceholder is to provide instructions to the end user that they can search by typing in the box.

It sounds like you are looking for something different, a way to provide some hint text when no selections are made?

[MichelH]

No, I just want the inputTextPlaceHolder to be visible.

But I noticed when I implemented cascading comboboxes that the IsSearchable option, that apparently renders the inputTextPlaceHolder visible, is set to false when there are no items in the combobox.

When, after selecting something in the first combo, the items of the second combo are populated, the IsSearchable remains false and the inputTextPlaceHolder is not displayed.

Since I did not wanted to use labels for the Combo this is now confusing for the users of my app.

[FilipK]

The inputTextPlaceHolder is really hint text for the search box, not the control.  So that's why it always shows up only when search is enabled.  That is the reason why I think another property is better suitable for your needs.

However I do want to point out that this hint text should not be used to replace a label.  Not only does it disappear when somethinbg is selected, it will not be read properly by screen readers for users who rely on those.

[KroonOfficeSol]

He @FilipK

I understand the intent, but you are looking at this in the wrong perspective. Let's look at the function off the inputTextPlaceHolder, this is to inform the user what to do, right? This guidance is not restricted to the situation that search is enabled, but is also true when disable, won't you agree. So just make the text also visible in the case that the search is dis-abled and let us decide what to show our user (We can always hide this text with "", don't you think?) 

The main two reasons why we use comboboxes (without search enabled) over dropdownboxes are 1) Dropdown can't be with no selection 2) DropDown controls don't holds full objects by default (oké, we can do this by using the ShowColumns() formula, but still this has some other flows) 

The dis-advantage form the ComboBox is that you can't set it to require a selected item. So when you are add it maybe at this option also. (And when you do, set the first item as default, but only when the DefaultSelectedItem is not set || has no match). This would in reality make the DropDown control unnessarry in total.

Additional question are always welcom.

I would like to wish you a plended christmas @FilipK and thank for the support on this topic, hope you can add it sone 😉

Paul

[MichelH]

I understand that there are drawbacks to using inputTextPlaceHolder instead of labels, but that is not my problem.

The issue is this, IMHO strange relation, enforced by powerapps, between the IsSearchable value and the text in the inputTextPlaceHolder being displayed. I don't even need the combobox searchable since the options are limited, but I have no choice if I want to see the hint text.

As KroonOfficeSol above states, if we don't want to show the hint text we can simply put it to "". There is no need to control this via the IsSearchable setting.

Also, when I make the IsSearchable depend on a variable, as I did in my app, I don't expect this to get overwritten by the app. It's like if you decide to have a variable to control your background-color, and powerapps removes your variable and puts in #FFFFFF. To me this seems a bug, not a feature.

Please try to liberate the hint text display, from any dependencies on other settings.

Merry Christmas to you all.