Dynamic list dropdown select is locked

Jawtab – I went thru the Navigator and unlinked everything, or at least anything that has a checkbox. Would there be some weird one I’m missing?

Is it right though that if I’m able to do that, I’d then be able to copy and paste the collection?

copy and pasting a data list into different template shouldn’t be an issue if it’s locked to a collection.

Well that’s weird. I have no idea why I’m getting that error, then. It just keeps giving me that “Dynamic elements cannot be moved outside of their context” message.

@Toupee, could you share read-only link with us?

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@sabanna - how do I do that? I can give you the public link to the full site, http://hell-toupee.webflow.io – not sure exactly which page to link you as read-only since I can’t paste the element across pages. Let me know what would be helpful to see.

Here is guidance how to share link to your project How to Enable a Webflow Share Link - Webflow Tips - Forum | Webflow

It will be Read-Only link.We will be able to come inside your webflow project, try to see the reason and change some options for find solution. But all changes will be not saved, so nothing will happen to your design.

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Great, thanks! Here it is: https://preview.webflow.com/preview/hell-toupee?preview=6863dcd51c7d91d445353fc077dab4ac

I am sorry, could you give me some example, what do you want to copy and where, so I could reproduce the error message. Because I tried to copy/paste different collections and had no problems.

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I’ll be damned, it’s working for me now. I had been trying unsuccesfully to copy the front page “recent posts” list to the author template page, which somehow got deleted. It seems to be working perfectly now!!.. sorry to waste your time… I really appreciate you looking into it.

If I end up recreating this error again, I’ll specifically let you know what I was doing.

Well, I am glad everything is working now. :smiley: And sure, do not hesitate to ask if you will experience that error again.

Regards,
Anna

I’m still not understanding where and when binding/linking is supposed to happen. The video tutorial on using dynamic lists seems to clearly indicate that when the Dynamic List element is clicked, that “its smart enough” to give an option of what to bind to. But while I managed to accomplish this on my 1st attempt, I don’t see the option for any subsequent attempts dropping in a dynamic list element.

Further, I still don’t understand what makes the Dynamic list collection selection lock vs. unlocked. In the OP, it mentions that subsequent Dynamic lists get created without being locked. But I don’t think I understood why “unlinking” is necessary on the Dynamic list that was first created.

Hello @mmediaman

After you create a Dynamic collection by clicking on “Dynamic data” button

You will see that in pages list there will appear Template to your collection.
Then for add dynamic collection to some page you choose element “Dynamic list” from the elements panel

drag and drop it to the page.

When Dynamic list will appear on the page you will get this popup window here you will be able to choose your collection in the dropdown:

@sabanna, sure you have explained how to place a Dynamic List onto the canvas, thank you. But I’m not sure it answers why a Dynamic List selection gets locked, or why and how content has to be un-linked to unlock the Dynamic List dropdown selector.

After you place any design inside the dynamic item and CONNECT elements inside that item with data from the collection, Dynamic list will become locked. For unlock list just disconnect elements inside the item from data collection.

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@sabanna thanks for explaining how the Dynamic Lists selector becomes locked.
I think what I am missing is the part about connecting elements which I believe is the same as “binding” the relevant fields from the collection into the Dynamic List element.

I can see from the tutorial that I should have the following (which I am pretty sure I saw at one time, but not any more in my current project) when a DL element is added or as you mention, after styling.

However, what I am seeing after adding the Dynamic List element to the canvas or when I right-click it, is the following:

Perhaps I am missing a step.

I think I see it now.

1.) After adding the Dynamic List element from the elements panel I have to;
2.) Add other types of elements such as Text Blocks or Images etc into the Dynamic List element. This action then triggers the prompt to be able to bind DL fields to the other element types in the DL. Once the fields are defined, the DL source becomes locked.
After which I can change only the bounded fields via the settings panel.

You almost got it :smile:

  1. you bring dynamic list to page
  2. connect it to particular collection
    On this step you have some kind of wireframe (structure) for your dynamic content.

3)This wireframe has a cells for every item, but inside these cells is NOTHING until you create the structure by adding elements inside the cell. In other words, you telling the browser which way it has to show dynamic content.
It is enough to create item structure only in one “cell” and it is automatically will show up in every of them.
On this step list is not locked yet and you can change your mind and connect other collection to this dynamic list.

  1. After you create structure (divs, images, text blocks) you can chose every of element in this cell structure and connect it to data from collection. So, for example, in image settings you can choose that data for this element will come from “Project image” field. Same with text block, it can get data from field “Project summary”. Text color, border or background color can be connected to the field “Color”. Etc, etc, etc.
    Have to notice that type of data should be the same as type of content.

Only NOW your list will be locked

Hope I was able to explain :slight_smile:

@sabanna, I think we are saying the same thing.

This should finally answer the OP question. :+1: