I'm working on a web page that has a set of filterable dropdown menus populated through a database query. Currently, when no filters are selected, these dropdowns default to their first option, which doesn't really reflect the results of the unfiltered query. I'd like to explicitly define default options for these dropdowns. My question is, who is responsible for setting these defaults? I initially thought it might be the model since it holds the current state and available options, but I've also seen suggestions that it should be handled by a separate service. I'm looking for clarity on this since I want to make the right architectural decision. I apologize if I'm posting this in the wrong place; I'm weary of past experiences getting unhelpful replies.
1 Answer
The default setting for dropdown menus usually comes from the HTML form definition, but deciding what that default should be is a matter of design logic. Ideally, it should reflect the system's state rather than just load the first option. You might want to have a service handle the logic of choosing that default based on the context of the choices available.
Thanks for the input! Just to clarify, I'm more concerned about defining what the default should be based on the data rather than how to technically set it. It sounds like a service could centralize that responsibility.