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People picker as a lookup column?

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Wednesday, May 7, 2014 8:31 AM

Hi All,

Is there anyway you can have a people picker as a lookup column in a list?

Regards 

All replies (9)

Wednesday, May 7, 2014 9:45 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote

You can limit the People Picker to a specific User Group, which would pretty much achieve what you're seeking. 

You can create a group called "Developers", give it minimal permissions and within the column settings, have it only look up into that group.

Steven Andrews
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Wednesday, May 7, 2014 12:17 PM ✅Answered | 1 vote

So 1) a "drop-down" and a "lookup column" are not interchangeable, hence the confusion.

2) Building on what Steven said before me, if you make a people-picker column and configure it to only look at a specific SharePoint group, it won't become a drop-down, but will allow you to click the little Directory/Book icon and it will display only the names within the group

Also, depending on your workflow and environment, you could potentially make a regular Choice column and put the names into the list exactly how they appear in Exchange. So they may read out as "Smith, James" in your listing when everyone knows him as Jim, but you get the point.


Wednesday, May 7, 2014 8:37 AM

Hello, 

it's not clear what you mean. Can you spend a few more words?

A lookup column gets the values in its drop-down from a different SharePoint list. You can have people's names in text fields in a different SharePoint list and use these names in a lookup column. But the result will be text fields, too.

You cannot create a lookup column that points to a person/group column in a different list. Lookup columns only work with very simple data types. Person/Group fields are quite complex. 

cheers, teylyn


Wednesday, May 7, 2014 8:41 AM

Hi,

It's not possible directly.However, you can have a text box column and implement it using SPD

http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/78548/people-picker-lookup-column

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/fca6fe2e-283a-4ca8-aa93-5e4d6efc52c5/lookup-limitations-people-picker?forum=sharepointgeneralprevious

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Wednesday, May 7, 2014 8:50 AM

Hi,

Adding little bit more to teylyn's and Lakshmanan's reply,

People Picker,Managed Meta data Columns and Workflow status are kind of lookup (by built-in by SharePoint) columns and those cannot reused.

Alternatively,You can create your own Custom Control (just like look up functionality) with auto suggestion (data can be retrieved from User Information List)..

Murugesa Pandian.,MCTS|App.Development|Configure


Wednesday, May 7, 2014 9:14 AM

Hello, 

it's not clear what you mean. Can you spend a few more words?

A lookup column gets the values in its drop-down from a different SharePoint list. You can have people's names in text fields in a different SharePoint list and use these names in a lookup column. But the result will be text fields, too.

cheers, teylyn

The main goal for me is to have a drop down list (lookup column) which will select a developer's name and then the workflow will kick in sending that user a email stated this items is assigned to you. I'm trying to avoid user interaction/less work. This is done through infopath hence the need for a look up column unless there is a different way.

My only other option is to add the people picker to the form and let the user select the developer which I don't really want.


Wednesday, May 7, 2014 1:50 PM

fantastic guys thank you.


Thursday, May 15, 2014 11:27 AM

When I use the default form and press the address book, all the names in that group appear which is great exactly what I want.

However

In Info Path I click on the address book and it appears empty stating you need to search for the user.

Is there a way I can get the same feel from the default form into info path?

Cheers


Thursday, May 15, 2014 11:37 AM

please ignore my last message.

I didnt publish the info path for some reason  the connection to AD wasn't there because I was testing this on my local machine

:)