---
title: FORM Butler Dependent PickLists
description: "If you have picklists in Salesforce that have Field Dependency, you can use this config from Salesforce in your PDF Forms. In this case, we have 2 picklists that are dependent: 1. Parent Picklist 2. Child Picklist And this is…"
url: "https://pdfbutler.com/academy/form-butler-academy/form-butler/form-butler-dependent-picklists/"
updated: "2025-01-11"
category: FORM BUTLER
---

# FORM Butler Dependent PickLists

If you have picklists in Salesforce that have Field Dependency, you can use this config from Salesforce in your PDF Forms.

In this case, we have 2 picklists that are dependent:

1. Parent Picklist
2. Child Picklist

And this is how the setup looks in Salesforce:

![](https://pdfbutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/dependent-picklist-Salesforce-1024x610.png)

 

A overview on how to create a Picklist dropdown in Salesforce can be found on our Academy: [FORM Butler PickList form-field](https://pdfbutler.com/academy/form-butler-academy/form-butler/form-butler-picklist-form-field-2/)

Important to note: The Dependent Picklists can only work with dropdown boxes, not with checkboxes!

 

In our example, we have 2 picklists, so we create 2 mergefields in the DOCX template:

![](https://pdfbutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/dependent-picklist-DOCX.png)

This will mean that we have created the below as explained:

- 2 PICKLIST TRANSLATION DataSources, one for each Picklist
- 2 SINGLE_FOR_FORM_FIELD or TRANSIENT_FOR_FORM_FIELD ConfigTypes

To register the dependency between picklists, we have to read the configuration in Salesforce and add that to the Config. This is done by creating an Actionable:

- Create an Actionable from Record Type: FORM Butler Picklist Dependency
- Choose a custom descriptive name
- Use Class (make sure to copy/paste): cadmus_form.Actionable_FormButlerPicklistDependency
- When: BEGIN
- Active: checked
- The Actionable is linked to the DocConfig or Pack that you want to run (a Pack would be architecturally more correct as you want to create a FORM Request as well)
- Translation DataSource: Use the PICKLIST TRANSLATION DataSource from the **child** picklist! The parent picklist and dependencies will be retrieved from Salesforce
- Picklist Controlling Mergefield: Name of the mergefield is in your DOCX file and use in your PDF Butler config. In our example: ParentPicklist
- Picklist Dependent Mergefield: Name of the mergefield is in your DOCX file and use in your PDF Butler config. In our example: ChildPicklist

![](https://pdfbutler.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/dependent-picklist-Actionable-1024x664.png)

This is all that is required. If you repeat the setup when you multiple dependent picklists for each, that will work just fine.

Also 3 levels of dependent picklists, Grandparent => Parent => Child, is not a problem but it will need 2 Actionables as there are 2 dependencies.