Multiple Choice Selection for Content Types, Reusable Content?

2025/09/19 6:58 PM

Under Admin, how do I enable multiple choice selection checkboxes for Content Types (Reusable content).

I tried "Text" and "Long Text" data type, and the only option I get for "Form component" is "Dropdown selector" and "Radio button group" which allows only one selection at the time.

AI "recommends" the following but the documentation is missing or inaccurate:
https://docs.kentico.com/documentation/developers-and-admins/development/builders/form-builder/reference-form-builder-components#configure-selector-editing-components

"You can enable multiple selection checkboxes in Xperience by Kentico using the built-in "Checkboxes" form component (MultipleChoiceComponent). This component allows users to select multiple options at once. To configure or customize the available options programmatically, refer to the documentation on configuring selector editing components."

How to add the "MultipleChoiceComponent" option under Content Types (Reusable content)?

Environment

  • Xperience by Kentico version: [30.9.0]

  • .NET version: [8|9]

  • Execution environment: [SaaS|Private cloud (Azure/AWS/Virtual machine)]

Answers

2025/09/19 7:48 PM

Good questions - there's a few things to consider here:

Data types

Content Types (Reusable content) is a data type - it represents how data is stored in Xperience by Kentico's database. This could be a simple match with a SQL Server data type, or it could be something more complex.

In the case of Content Types (Reusable content), the data is stored as a serialized JSON array of GUID values that identify the linked pages. Xperience also stores those links in CMS_ContentItemReference table for easy lookups. This is all done behind the scenes.

By selecting the data type for a field and then choosing the correct selector - in this case, the combined content selector - everything "just works" and the data stays consistent.

As an example, you can't use those other selectors for the Content Types (Reusable content) data type because they wouldn't work as an editing experience. Xperience content management UI isn't designed for developers to copy/paste JSON and GUIDs into text fields. It is preconfigured to offer specific selectors for each data type.

Selectors and components

The docs you linked to are for the Form Builder. The editing components for the Form Builder, like "Dropdown selector" and "Radio button group" (which are all noted in the docs), are for forms that website visitors fill out on the website. These components are completely different than the ones used in the administration UI for marketers to author content, which are called Admin UI Form Components.

Yep, the naming can be a little confusing.

You can't use editing components in the administration UI for editing content and you can't use Admin UI Form Components on websites for visitors. Why? Because Admin UI Form Components are built on React and we don't want to force every customer to ship a giant React bundle on every website that uses forms. We also want to allow developers to build rich user experiences for marketers with custom Admin UI Form Components - React (and our admin UI architecture) makes that possible. Editing components for the Form Builder are far simpler and are purely .NET/Razor code.

The combined content selector is the only Admin UI Form Component registered for the Content Types (Reusable content) data type, so that's what you'll have to use if you want marketers to select linked content items (or web pages) for that field.

Questions

  1. Why do you need a multiple choice experience for marketers selecting linked content items? The combined content selector already supports this. You can configure how many linked items can be selected from specific content types.
  2. If your marketing team creates hundreds (thousands is not uncommon) of reusable content items in the Content hub, how would a drop down list scale to make it easy for them to select and find the right item?
  3. Similar with a radio button group - how can that scale across hundreds or thousands of content items?
  4. How would you also guarantee the correct workspace, and web page tree permissions are in place to ensure marketers only have access to the content that matches their permissions?

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