Custome text Field as select box

Hello.

In custom field we can put or indicate what type of field we need, check box, select box, input text, text area and such...
but on the search option it shows that field as is...
example:

Custom Field Type Input text
name: Location (we are talking about a particular area of a city, with specific names)

so when I enter a new property it shows that input text and so I type: Loop B1 Stars
This is not an address or a city...
so, each property will have something like that and that is working fine...
Now, the problem here is when I select to show that option to be use for search....
In the search area, it shows as input text box...
the question is:
How do I show that particular information in a select box, instead the need to type that name, the user can select from a drop down select box, just like it would for a country or a city... but for this particular data...

Why don't I use the select box in the first place?

Well, this information can not be predefined as it is enter by the agent and not the admin

As you can see the agent will have to call the admin so he/she can enter that info.. and this will have to be done per agent per property every time the agent need to enter a new property or to make modifications, which is not going to work...

so... who do I do that?
custom field text box in the property information for the agents to type the info but in the search option show it as drop down select box for the users?
we won't use more than this option as custom field and that has already been defined, everything else stay the same...

Thank you..

Hi Dycon,
Thank you very much for your suggestion, i am appreciate the suggestions from customers. They will make OS Property become better, not only just for us, but for everybody who want to have the best real estate Joomla extension.
Regarding to your idea, with the text input custom fields. In fact, you are correct, if the system can collect the value of text input field from all properties and show them at the dropdown. Users will be able to search the properties through those options easily.
But, there are 2 problems that we need to solve.
1- If i use OS Property, i have about 5000 properties, and they have different values for one text input custom fields. In that case, the dropdown select box (in the search form for that custom field) will have max 5000 options. And i believe in this case, customers will have difficult when they find the option that they need. Moreover, the system will need more time to collect value of the text input custom fields from all properties and make the options. This work is one reason that make the my site slow.
2- In case i am using multiple language for OS Property. In case i show the values of the custom field into dropdown select list. I must translate the language from original to other languages. This work is not simple.

With above reasons, i think we can't implement your idea even it is good. Maybe your idea is good for several cases, but not for all. But we are welcome your suggestions in the future. We will consider to think about them.

Thank you very much
Dam

Thank you.

Yes, this is an option not for all, more like, for small real state firms... until now I have meet only 7 different firms whiting 3 cities... each have no more than 200 properties or so...

The one that I'm helping right now has no more than 50... and that is why I'm attempting to do this...

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Like you mention, if the firm has more than 1K properties this option wont work... unless, there is an option to pre-output the number of data to show...
say if the user is going to use this option indicate how many options/names/data to show... and do you want it to show in which order, random, alphabetical, asc, desc, ....
the more I think about this the more I like it! .... it could be a great feature and usefull for some firms

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any way, in the meantime how can I do that?...

I was thinking to:

Connect to DB
and collect that info for each property, display it in a drop-down box and to be use in the search module...

the problem here is that I'm not much familiar with joomla and it's method of extracting/collecting data from db without compromising the whole site...

I'll much appreciate if you can point me in the right direction so that I can get this effect...

Thank you.