What inspired this wish list request?
The current Combobox UI in JMP struggles when dealing with long or large sets of values. If even one value is lengthy, the entire dropdown resizes awkwardly, making the interface inconsistent and visually unpleasant.
It becomes extremely frustrating when working with custom dropdowns or conditional dropdowns, especially in cases where the dataset is very large. The dropdown becomes slow, unresponsive, and difficult to navigate. For example, when selecting from thousands of product IDs or survey responses, the dropdown lags and forces users to scroll endlessly.
What is the improvement you would like to see?
- Better UI handling for long values:
Prevent a single lengthy value from resizing the entire dropdown unnecessarily.
- Search functionality: Add a search box within the dropdown so users can quickly locate values instead of scrolling.
- Lazy loading support: Load values progressively rather than all at once, so large datasets don’t freeze the UI.
- Smarter conditional dropdowns: Optimize performance when dropdowns depend on other selections, ensuring they remain responsive even with large data.
Mock-ups could be inspired by modern UI frameworks (e.g., web-based dropdowns in React or Angular) where search, lazy loading, and adaptive sizing are standard features.
Why is this idea important?
- Ease of use:
Searching within dropdowns saves time and reduces frustration.
- Performance: Lazy loading ensures that working with thousands of values remains smooth and efficient.
- Consistency: Smarter handling of long values keeps the UI clean and avoids awkward resizing.
- Value: Dropdowns are a core part of JMP’s interactivity. Improving them would directly enhance workflows for anyone dealing with large or complex datasets.
In short: the current Combobox UI feels outdated and inefficient. With search, lazy loading, and better handling of long values, it could become a powerful, user-friendly tool that scales to modern data needs.