Autocomplete but allow fill-in text

Hello,

I’m trying to create a field (text? select_one?) where user can type text and it can be autocompleted, but this time I need to allow the user to also enter a choice of his own if he didn’t find it in the autocomplete list. Is it possible?

I’ve check many posts that answered the autocomplete part (two of them like here or here), but not the possibility of a fill-in choice.

Sorry if there was a topic about it that I missed while searching.

Thank you!

Seems like you are trying to use autocomplete with a text question type. Please be informed that autocomplete is applicable with select_one or 'select_multiple` question type.

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Thank u, @Kal_Lam. Is there however any approach to my requirement?

Hello,
You may provide an Other (specify) option in the select. Then if selected a (required) additional text variable to keep the free text.

You could even reference this text dynamically in the label of the Other choice, like Other (specify) ${TheSpecified}.

Here is an example for KoBo /ODK Collect: Dynamic Choice Label 01.xlsx (25.9 KB)
The first select_multiple question selects 1 … n needs of the household. If other is included, a free text is entered and added to the “Other” label. The second select_one question selects one of the previous choices, showing the enhanced Other label (if relevant)…

Attention: It’s not working well for Enketo, as the 2nd choice is not dynamically updating at once.
See https://community.kobotoolbox.org/t/dynamic-choice-label-with-choice-filter-update-problem-in-enketo-kobo/15986

Also to be aware, that the dynamic choice label is only available on UI level (and in print-out). In export, KoBo data table and report you will find: Other (specify) - ${UnmetNeedsOTH}. Of course, the extra text field is there.

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