Allow custom user input values in mo.ui.dropdown

[DBP008]

Description

Currently, mo.ui.dropdown only allows users to select from predefined options. In some workflows, it would be useful for users to input a new value directly into the dropdown field, for example, entering a new label or category that isn’t yet part of the available options.

Suggested solution

Add an optional flag, e.g. allow_custom=True, to mo.ui.dropdown which enables users to type a custom value in addition to selecting from the provided options.

This would behave similarly to searchable=True, but instead of restricting input to the provided list, the user's typed value could be accepted and stored in the output variable.

Example usage:

fruit = mo.ui.dropdown(
    label="Select or type a fruit",
    options=["Apple", "Banana", "Cherry"],
    allow_custom=True
)

When a user types "Mango" (not in the options list), the component would return "Mango" as the stored value.

Are you willing to submit a PR?

• [ ] Yes

Alternatives

A possible workaround is combining a mo.ui.text input with a mo.ui.dropdown, but this requires additional logic to sync values and complicates the UI. A native flag in mo.ui.dropdown would be a more elegant and consistent solution.

Additional context

No response

[Yasin197]

This would be super useful!! - not sure if there is a similar feature request raised

[mscolnick]

Hey @DBP008 thanks for the feature request. We are open to adding this, but currently prioritizing stability right now so may not get to it ourselves. But we welcome contributions