Question: Is it possible to add ViewState to blockSuggestion events?

[RovoMe]

In a modal view we have two ExternalSelectElements that provide suggestion support for user entering customer and project values. We would love to use the input of the first select element, if a selection was performed, as filter for the second one without having to store the entered value in a short-living cache or backing datastore. The API could simply return the value of the selected elements within the ViewState object similar to how blockAcktion(...) or viewSubmission(...) receive it.

The modal basically looks like this:

View view = View.builder()
            .type("modal")
            .callbackId("some_callback_id")
            .title(ViewTitle.builder()
                    .type("plain_text")
                    .text("Some title")
                    .build())
            .submit(ViewSubmit.builder()
                    .type("plain_text")
                    .text("Submit")
                    .build())
            .close(ViewClose.builder()
                    .type("plain_text")
                    .text("Cancel")
                    .build())
            .blocks(List.of(
                    SectionBlock.builder()
                            .blockId("customerFilterBlock")
                            .text(MarkdownTextObject.builder()
                                    .text("Customer")
                                    .build())
                            .accessory(customerFilter())
                            .build(),
                    SectionBlock.builder()
                            .blockId("projectFilterBlock")
                            .text(MarkdownTextObject.builder()
                                    .text("Project")
                                    .build())
                            .accessory(projectFilter())
                            .build()
            ))
            .privateMetadata(metadata)
            .build();

  private ExternalSelectElement customerFilter() {
    final ExternalSelectElement.ExternalSelectElementBuilder builder =
            ExternalSelectElement.builder()
                    .actionId("customerFilter")
                    .placeholder(PlainTextObject.builder()
                            .text("Customer")
                            .build());

    return builder.build();
  }

  private ExternalSelectElement projectFilter() {
    final ExternalSelectElement.ExternalSelectElementBuilder builder =
            ExternalSelectElement.builder()
                    .actionId("projectFilter")
                    .placeholder(PlainTextObject.builder()
                            .text("Project")
                            .build());

    return builder.build();
  }

Suggestions are provided via

app.blockSuggestion("customerFilter", (req, ctx) -> {
  ...
  return ctx.ack(r -> r.options(suggestions.stream()
      .map(Option.builder()
          .text(...)
          .value(...)
          .build()
      )
      .toList());
});

while

app.blockAction("customerFilter", (req, ctx) -> {
  final BlockSuggestionPayload payload = req.getPayload();
  final View view = payload.getView();
  final Map<String, Map<String, ViewState.Value>> values = view.getState().getValues();
  final ViewState.Value customerOption = values.get("customerFilterBlock").get("customerFilter");
  final String customerUuid = customerOption.getSelectedOption().getValue();
  ...
  return ctx.ack();
});

can be used to learn the actual selected value (before the modal is submitted). Trying that within a blockSuggestion(...) fails as here the ViewState is basically empty (ViewState(values={})).

While we could push that value to some backing cache or datastore, i.e. Redis, so we can access it while making a suggestion for the second one by including the selection of the first input field as filter, I wonder if there are ways to actually get the ViewState also within blockSuggestion(...) and not only blockAction(...) and viewSubmission(...) somehow so we could use the value entered/selected in the first input as filter for the second suggestion? This would avoid having to push those values to a short-living cache or backing datastore.

[filmaj]

I think this is a reasonable request and I will raise it internally.

[github-actions[bot]]

👋 It looks like this issue has been open for 30 days with no activity. We'll mark this as stale for now, and wait 10 days for an update or for further comment before closing this issue out. If you think this issue needs to be prioritized, please comment to get the thread going again! Maintainers also review issues marked as stale on a regular basis and comment or adjust status if the issue needs to be reprioritized.

[RovoMe]

@filmaj do you have any update on this one? As you mentioned that the requested change is reasonable and the bot is about to close this issue, I fear that this just increases the likelihood for this request being dropped

[filmaj]

Sorry about the bot, I forgot to add the 'skip' label. I did raise this internally and have no update to provide at this time - sorry! When I hear about any updates I will certainly let you know.

[RovoMe]

Nah, all fine here. Just wanted to make sure the request isn't dropped due to the bot autoclosing it due to inactivity :)