Hi @sellsy, thanks for your question!

The best workaround available within VideoAsk is using our API to create a multiple-choice question. This would allow you to programmatically add as many options as you wish. However, this would be a list of options as opposed to a dropdown menu (since we don’t currently support that as an answer type).

However, what I actually recommend is combining the power of VideoAsk and Typeform. At whatever point in the videoask where you want to ask the dropdown question, you can use our URL redirect feature to send the respondent to a typeform. Typeform does support the dropdown list answer type. While Typeform doesn’t have an Elastic Search integration, you could use Typeform’s API to update the question/dropdown whenever an update is made to the database. Or, if the database is mostly static, you could simply copy/paste in the options.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for the response. I appreciate it. Unfortunately I'm not sure either solution could work in our use case. We use elastic search because we have nearly 2 million possible options..…

Could we build a custom front end that allows us to.build the elastic search drop-down functionality and integrate it with videoask via the API?

@sellsy Ah, wow! Yes, that would be quite a lot of multiple choice options or copying and pasting!

In that case, like you suggest, I would recommend creating your own landing page for that aspect of the videoask. You could redirect from videoask, to that landing page, then redirect back to videoask once the respondent has made their selections.

You could then pass their choice(s) from the landing page into videoask using variables (aka URL parameters).

Thanks. Do you think it's possible to integrate the form (including the dropdown field) so it feels part of the videoask format? Or is this really videoask to form back to videoask UX?

@sellsy There’s a chance you could embed your landing page/dropdown UI within our calendar answer type by pasting in the URL of that page, but I doubt it will work. And even if VideoAsk does let you embed it, the data won’t be saved in VideoAsk. 

TL;DR - It’s best to redirect to the page, and then redirect back to your videoask upon completion

OK thanks I appreciate your guidance!

You’re welcome, @sellsy! Reach back out if you have any questions