Benefit of using Predefined Values vs. Not

Is there any reading somewhere that goes into good depth about Predefined values and how/why they are used?

And is there some specific advantages to using PV's over say, just adding items as a cut and paste inside a profile field question?

I have a lot of profile questions with a TON of choices. id rather only have to add them one time, so I want to make sure i do it right.

Thanks all. :)

you are doing it right my friend :)

Wiki : http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/wiki/DolphinAdminPredefinedValues

Here is some forums :  http://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/Predefined-Values-2015-01-12.htm

Thanks, but that page is nothing but a simple how-to.

Im asking what are the benefits of going through the extra work of creating PV, rather then merely cut and pasting into a new profile question.

The plus of using the Predefined values is if you look at the gender(sex). you have the different keys. So I am a male and then looking for a female. That crap..

The down fall I came accross using it years ago with one of the mobile style that was for sale here. If you use the Predefined values, It showed the lang file instead of the one you want to show.. So in the mobile style it showed __male instead of just male..

Ever since then I never used them again.. I also was told you are making more calls to your server that that uses more memory using the Predefined values. Not sure if that is true but I can see it happening. Not that it would use up that much more..

Just my two cents.. LOL..

Ugh!! That's what I was most concerned about, was the taking of server resources.

I also just assumed that a particular profile field could be searched even if it was just a copy and paste, because it's still only adding the one item into the db.

the only benefit I could think of for PVs, was that if you used it in several areas, you could rename it and the change would be reflected globally. Kind of a database version of .css.

Anybody else have any pros and cons, please?

I could really use some pro advice here, guys...

Example. Should I  just copy and paste cities and states?

Or should I enter each city as a PV to better assist the radios search? Does it matter??

Or should  I manually enter each city in my state to e

Radious search. Not radios search.

One obvious advantage is that you enter once in the PV and that can be used anywhere; even in custom forms.

Hello

I think Predefined Values have a lot of advantages over copy&paste.

1. The same predefined list can be used in different places.
2. Items in the list are translatable which is essential for multi-language sites. 
3. Items in the list can be easily managed (reorder, rename, fix misprint, etc). 
4. When PV are used the main table will save PV ID and not its value. Such field requires less size of memory. In another case if you are using hardcoded list of values then the field will store the value itself. Which requires more memory and if after some time you'll find that some choice has a mistake or simply decide to change some value you need to manually correct all items in the main table.
5. You may create dependency between different lists. You are welcome to take a look at our custom modules: Dependent Fields  and Self Manageable Dependent Fields.

Yes, it takes much more time to create a predefined list especially if you'll do it via admin panel. But it's worth it. Also you may create SQL query of the list manually in some text editor which will save your time and can be reused in the future.

Thank you Anton & GG! Great info there! I think I now see the light!

PV's are worth the effort then.

Ok.. well now to begin the arduous task of adding every city and town in my state into PV's.

My weekend is spoken for. ;)

It might be easier to set up a database query in a text editor such as Notepad++ or PsPad and then run that sql query in your database tool such as phpMyAdmin.

Hello

You are welcome and I agree with geek_girl's suggestion.
Good luck with your heavy task! :)

Indeed, Anton! Thank you, GG! I didnt know you replied again or I would have replied sooner.

Many thanks!

Mac