Custom form in 7.6 - check box list element

[unhappyvra]

Hi!

I was updating my blueprints recently and figured out that there wasn't "Check box list" element among "Generic Elements" (but it is still available in XaaS forms).

There is "ugly" "Multi select" which confuses my users (not really obvious how to select multiple values), "Dual list" is better but still not as clear to customers as "Check box list" they got used to in XaaS forms.

So, the question - is it possible to somehow create "Check box list" element in the Custom form? I'm trying to keep forms nice and user-friendly. Why Custom forms elements != XaaS ?? Is there any plans to finally merge those to interfaces? It is so annoying...

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

Are you asking if you can somehow create your own custom forms element or restore the behavior from 7.4/7.5? If so, the answer is no. Custom forms and XaaS are still separate and go by two different styling "engines". As to future plans, we don't know futures here and couldn't speak to them if we did.

[unhappyvra]

Thank you!

Probably this is my "feature request" - consistency between Custom forms and XaaS. You did a great work to let import/export blueprints, copy/clone them with keeping all fields/properties in order - it simplified my life drastically and made my users a little bit more happy, but XaaS part (blueprints/resource actions) is still suck. Like it is still 2005  

[daphnissov]

XaaS is still..."special"...but in all honesty with the advancements of the platform and introduction of custom forms, people really shouldn't be using XaaS to wrap an IaaS request any longer. Those days are long gone and it's time to move on.

[unhappyvra]

I'm 100% agree with you here. However, I still have several very necessary day-2 custom actions (for  the individual machines and for the entire deployment) and XaaS services with dynamic types etc. None of therm "duplicate" IaaS requests in any way.

After upgrade to 7.6 i got the situation when request forms (blueprints with Custom forms) look nice and work great but XaaS part is a little bit outdated. I really like XaaS idea to deliver additional services my company needs, it is just odd that in 7.6 they are still look and work like in 7.2-3-4.

If you (VMware) think that nobody uses XaaS and improvements there doesn't worth the efforts - here i am, a really big $$$$ customer who uses them constantly.

Just a feedback from the fields

[daphnissov]

Well, firstly, I am not VMware. Second, yes, XaaS is still a big part and absolutely necessary for day2. So, in your use case if you're not wrapping IaaS, you really just have to use XaaS, and we still have to do the best we can do there. But I agree, the lack of custom forms for XaaS has been a big disappointment, but as I understand it there are quite a large number of hurdles to overcome there because it's essentially plumbing directly into vRO. Doesn't make it any easier for you, but there you go.