VMware vRealize Automation 8 Form and Seach Box

I have some large forms value lists that contains a lot of items, and I want the users to search and show filtered results in this lists, instead of a dropdown, that is very long.

If I look in the forms editor, I can use this types of fields for a “text”/”string” item, I know that the user can search in the dropdown, but that is only from the first character, and not a “real” search, and the result that it shows a filtered list.

The “Combobox” can be used, but it has an “add” function to it that I do not want, and I have not found a method to disabled that.

There is a forms Element that is doing what I want’s but it’s not designed for “text”/”string” items, but for objects, that is called a “ValuePicker”.

The “ValuePicker” does work on “text”/”string” items, but I am not sure if it is supported or not, so do uses this fix at your on risk, it may not work in the future versions, I have only tested this in version 8.6.2.

The solution is to change this in a exported form, I use the YAML export.

layout:
  pages:
    - id: page_general
      sections:
        - id: section_project
          fields:
            - id: project
              display: dropDown
              signpostPosition: right-middle
        - id: section_deploymentName
          fields:
            - id: deploymentName
              display: textField
              signpostPosition: right-middle
        - id: section_test
          fields:
            - id: test
              display: dropDown
              state:
                visible: true
                read-only: false
              signpostPosition: right-middle
      title: General
      state: {}
schema:
  project:
    label: Project
    type:
      dataType: string
      isMultiple: false
    valueList:
      id: projects
      type: scriptAction
    constraints:
      required: true
  deploymentName:
    label: Deployment Name
    type:
      dataType: string
      isMultiple: false
    constraints:
      required: true
      max-value: 80
  test:
    label: Test
    type:
      dataType: string
      isMultiple: false
    constraints:
      required: true
options:
  externalValidations: []

I then changes the “display” for the text input to “valuePicker”, and it looks like this.

layout:
  pages:
    - id: page_general
      sections:
        - id: section_project
          fields:
            - id: project
              display: dropDown
              signpostPosition: right-middle
        - id: section_deploymentName
          fields:
            - id: deploymentName
              display: textField
              signpostPosition: right-middle
        - id: section_test
          fields:
            - id: test
              display: valuePicker
              state:
                visible: true
                read-only: false
              signpostPosition: right-middle
      title: General
      state: {}
schema:
  project:
    label: Project
    type:
      dataType: string
      isMultiple: false
    valueList:
      id: projects
      type: scriptAction
    constraints:
      required: true
  deploymentName:
    label: Deployment Name
    type:
      dataType: string
      isMultiple: false
    constraints:
      required: true
      max-value: 80
  test:
    label: Test
    type:
      dataType: string
      isMultiple: false
    constraints:
      required: true
options:
  externalValidations: []

And afterwards you saved the fixed version, it can be imported.

The Forms editor has a little problem with the input fields afterward, since it’s does not allow the “ValuePicker” to be used on “text”/”string” input fields.

I hope VMware will change this so it’s supported, and can be done from the forms editor, in the future.

NOTE:

Use this on your own risk, it’s proberly not supported.