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Lists - Dependent

Rebekah Garner
Rebekah Garner
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Lists are a powerful way to organize your organization's standardized allowed metadata to be presented on a submission table. Users are able to select field values from a predetermined list, which adds convenience in the submission process and provides consistent metadata values for accurate and cleaner reporting.

About Dependent Lists

A Dependent list consists of two or more columns that reference a single line. When you select a value from the first column of a Dependent list, all subsequent column values are locked. Values in the second (and all other) columns will automatically populate into any designated fields.

Basic example use case: The first column is the friendly name the user sees in the submission table, and the second column passes the abbreviation into the tracking link or to other fields.
 

Advanced example use case: The first column is the friendly name the user sees in the submission table, the second column automatically populates the Region, the third column automatically populates the Global Region, and the fourth column automatically populates the Country Code Abbreviation.

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An administrator links each column to a field in a field set, so if the user selects Japan, the Region, Global Region, and Country Code Abbreviation populate automatically without the user having to manually enter those values.

Create the Dependent List

  1. Navigate to Admin Settings → Elements → Lists. The Lists page displays. 
  2. Click the blue + Create List button to start a new list.
  3. Enter the Name of the list by selecting the pencil icon, and choose Dependent from the List Type dropdown.Screenshot 2026-05-13 at 11.42.27 AM.png
  4. Input or copy the values into the columns.
  5. Click the three dots on the right side of the column header to rename a column. Screenshot 2026-05-13 at 11.43.12 AM.png

  6. Click Save.

    We recommend renaming each column for easy reference (for example, Column 1 = Social Platforms, Column 2 = Social Platforms Abbreviation). 

Associate a New or Existing Field to the Dependent List

You must have a field in a field set that references the friendly name column (column 1) and a field to reference each additional column of data in the list (column 2+).

  1. Open the appropriate Field Set for the corresponding field.
  2. Add or edit a field:
    • If the field does not exist in the field set: Click the blue + Create button on the right side of the work area, then enter the Name (required).
    • If the field already exists in the field set: Click the Field Name in the work area to edit it.
  3. Enter a Description (optional). The description shows as a tooltip in the submission table. 
  4. Select Required Field (optional) to make the field mandatory for the user to fill in. 
  5. Set the Type to List. 
  6. Select the List Name from the dropdown menu, or begin typing the list name. 
  7. Select the column to associate with this field. Naming columns is important for this step. 
  8. Click Done. 
  9. Repeat the steps above to edit or create a new field for the remaining columns of the list. For the Social Platform example, the new field Social Platform Abbreviation was created and the second column of the list was assigned to it. 
  10. Click Save.


     
  11. Click Done.
     
  12. Repeat the steps above to edit or create a new field for the remaining columns of the list. For our Social Platform example, the new field Social Platform Abbreviation was created and the second column of the list that was assigned.


     
  13. Click Save.

Add the Fields to the Template

All fields associated with the list must be added to the template schema to be used.

  1. Open the Template you want to add the field to.
  2. Go to Step 2 - Define and Govern.
  3. Click + Select Fields.
  4. Click the menu expander arrow to view and select individual fields. Use the Search field to find a specific field name across all field sets.
  5. Click Select Fields.
  6. Arrange the field in the order you want it to appear on the submission table.
  7. Click Save.

User Experience

Below is an example of how a Dependent list appears to users in the submission table.


 

The user double-clicks the cell to expand the list, or begins typing a list value (for example, "twi" to find Twitter). Typing filters the available values to those that match. The user can tab or arrow out of the cell to select the value, and the correct Social Platform Abbreviation will populate into the Pattern.

Notice that the Social Pattern column is gray and locked. The user cannot change this column, which prevents incorrect metadata from being sent to analytics, the wrong Pattern from being created, or the wrong URL from being generated. By locking this column, Claravine ensures accurate and consistent data.

Using Multiple Value Select with Dependent List

An administrator must designate a field to allow multi-select from a list and insert the designated delimiter. Multiple Value Select allows users to select two or more allowed values from the list and populate the data consistently. No matter the order the user selects the values, Claravine will always populate the concatenated value in alphabetical order with the designated delimiter across all columns where a Dependent list is used.

Using the Platform list above, if the user selects Google, then Yandex, then Bing, Claravine will populate the string with Bing first, then Google, then Yandex. This removes any possible fragmented metadata in analytics by always concatenating alphabetically or numerically.

Note: If you use the same delimiter in your list values as the one between multi-select list values, it will cause an error. For example, if you set Select Multiple Values to use a dash (-) as a delimiter and have a list value containing a dash such as "Kick-Off," you will see an error saying "Value not in list."

Apply Multiple Value Select to a Field

  1. Open the Field Set. 
  2. Click the Field Name in the work area associated with the first column of the Dependent list to edit it.
  3. Check the box for Select Multiple Values.
  4.  Enter the Delimiter. We do not recommend using a space delimiter.
  5. Click Done. 
  6. Click Save.


     

User Experience

Below is an example of the multiple select dependent list as the user will see it in the submission table:

 

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The user double-clicks the cell to expand the list and clicks all values that apply. The user can click the X next to each value to remove them individually, or uncheck the box next to a value to deselect it.

As the user makes selections, Claravine alphabetizes the values in the cell, and when the user moves out of the cell, the appropriate delimiter automatically appears.
 

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