Best practices: Options fields
Follow recommended best practices for designing options and fields on action cards.
Fields in the options section of an action card are configuration values that can be selected by a Workflows user when designing a flow. Once those option values are selected, they cannot be changed when a user runs the flow.
Keep in mind that options are not fields that can receive values (like input fields) from other cards. If you prefer to design a card where a user can enter a specific value on a card, then use an input field. Input fields (but not options fields) allow values to be dynamically passed into a card when you run a flow. Give priority to adding input fields rather than options fields to a card unless you expect that the static values in an options fields will never change.
An options field can be a pre-defined set of static and selectable values in a dropdown. A dropdown can also contain a set of dynamically generated list of values. For example, an options field for a card that reads spreadsheets can contain a list of customized column names from any spreadsheet in user's environment. In such cases, your connector will make a call to an API to populate the dropdown list on your card. Such calls are subject to a 60-second time limit.
Generally, for better usability, avoid designing dropdowns that offer long lists (of more than 100 values).
Consider using options fields in these scenarios:
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A user's selection from the options field will dynamically change which input and output fields are displayed on an action card.
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An action card requires the use of two or more dependent dropdown fields.
Options fields for "Read" or "Search" action cards
An action card can be designed to return data on a large set of data, but it is rare that a user will need all the records in an environment (for example, every contact in a CRM application). For better results and experience, you can design an action card that searches for a subset of data by using a filtered request to the target API. By using one or more options fields for this narrowed search, you can allow a user to filter data and return a more specific set of records. By implementing options fields on a search card and allowing a user to specify more granular search criteria, you are also lowering the risk of negatively impacting the performance of flows (by avoiding the return of much larger data sets).