I have a custom user field with a very long list of dropdown options. For reasons, users are not allowed to enter their own value in this field, and this field must exist as a dropdown, and it is a required field for all users. From time to time, I need to add or remove items to the list. Because it’s such a long list, I have it alphabetized. The pain here is that new items are added to the bottom, and i need to manually click the up arrow for each new item in order to re-alphabetize the list. I did a search, and got this AI result, which is incorrect - there is no Admin > Customize > User Fields page. [image] I checked for an API endpoint at docs.discourse.org and didn’t see anything related to custom user fields. This topic: Dynamically update available user field values during a profile fill in does outline a method for updating the list using a cron job (though it’s not quite my use case, it is similar enough). I’m very leery of doing it this way, though. I have searched for other topics related to this; I know I had asked about it about 3 years ago, but didn’t want to necro that topic. My questions: is there an easier way to sort dropdown lists than clicking the arrow manually for each item would it seem like something feasible to add a display alphabetically option or have it manually display alphabetically using a theme component, or is this more complicated to accomplish than it seems? if the only option is to go the route of creating a cron job for it, if the dropdown list is completely replaced, would current users retain the selection they’ve already made, if it is listed exactly the same in the replaced list? what would be the chances that this could be added as an API endpoint? Sincerely, someone with a lot of clicking to do

[image] jenmck: I have searched for other topics related to this; I know I had asked about it about 3 years ago, but didn’t want to necro that topic. [image] Re-order the dropdown options in user fields Feature I’m wondering if there’s been any solutions to this issue? We have a required custom user field that’s a dropdown with approximately 200 options. While we don’t need to update the list too terribly frequently, it is still a pain whenever it needs to be done. Having the option to rearrange the options would be a huge timesaver. There isn’t any new information so I’d recommend to add your vote to that one (it has zero votes atm and the voting feature is often how we prioritze work). It’s totally fine to bring it back alive! And often better to keep all asks grouped instead of scattered across multiple support topics.

You could use dsc to pull the UCF data locally, then sort the range of lines in YAML and push back up. [image] Creating and configuring custom user fields Site Management Creating a Discourse multiselect user field with many options Entering dozens or hundreds of choices one at a time in Discourse’s custom user-field editor is tedious. I’ve been working on a multipurpose CLI tool for Discourse called dsc, which makes operations like this easier and more deterministic using local files. Just one of many things it can do is manipulate Custom User Fields. dsc can create a new custom user field from a YAML file, including the entire ordered option list in one operat… Any local AI agent will be able to do this for you very well using the CLI tool

Sorting custom user field dropdown items

Product Support

pacharanero (Marcus Baw) November 3, 2026, 8:43pm 4

You could use dsc to pull the UCF data locally, then sort the range of lines in YAML and push back up.

Any local AI agent will be able to do this for you very well using the CLI tool

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Sorting custom user field dropdown items

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