# Unable to map the PHC hierarchy hospitals into a dropdown 

**URL:** <https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/t/unable-to-map-the-phc-hierarchy-hospitals-into-a-dropdown/5617>\
**Category:** Development\
**Tags:** forms, configuration\
**Created:** [May 18, 2026, 8:04am UTC](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/t/unable-to-map-the-phc-hierarchy-hospitals-into-a-dropdown/5617 "2026-05-18T08:04:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ramu](https://communityhealthtoolkit.b-cdn.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e95f7d/32.png) [@Ramu](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/u/Ramu)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 8:04am UTC](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/t/unable-to-map-the-phc-hierarchy-hospitals-into-a-dropdown/5617/1 "2026-05-18T08:04:51Z")

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this is my hierarchy

state → district → district\_hospital → community\_health\_center → primary\_health\_center → health\_and\_wellness\_center → village

I will login at village level as an ASHA worker, the requirement is to show all the primary\_health\_center to be shown in the dropdown so that they can be referred to that health Center from the above hierarchy.

The contact\_types that we created are defined below:

`“contact_types”: [`  
`{`  
`“id”: “state”,`  
`“name_key”: “contact.type.state”,`  
`“group_key”: “contact.type.state.plural”,`  
`“create_key”: “contact.type.state.new”,`  
`“edit_key”: “contact.type.place.edit”,`  
`“icon”: “medic-district-hospital”,`  
`“create_form”: “form:contact:state:create”,`  
`“edit_form”: “form:contact:state:edit”`  
`},`  
`{`  
`“id”: “district”,`  
`“name_key”: “contact.type.district”,`  
`“group_key”: “contact.type.district.plural”,`  
`“create_key”: “contact.type.district.new”,`  
`“edit_key”: “contact.type.place.edit”,`  
`“parents”: [“state”],`  
`“icon”: “medic-district-hospital”,`  
`“create_form”: “form:contact:district:create”,`  
`“edit_form”: “form:contact:district:edit”`  
`},`  
`{`  
`“id”: “district_hospital”,`  
`“name_key”: “contact.type.district_hospital”,`  
`“group_key”: “contact.type.district_hospital.plural”,`  
`“create_key”: “contact.type.district_hospital.new”,`  
`“edit_key”: “contact.type.place.edit”,`  
`“parents”: [“district”],`  
`“icon”: “medic-district-hospital”,`  
`“create_form”: “form:contact:district_hospital:create”,`  
`“edit_form”: “form:contact:district_hospital:edit”`  
`},`  
`{`  
`“id”: “community_health_center”,`  
`“name_key”: “contact.type.community_health_center”,`  
`“group_key”: “contact.type.community_health_center.plural”,`  
`“create_key”: “contact.type.community_health_center.new”,`  
`“edit_key”: “contact.type.place.edit”,`  
`“parents”: [“district_hospital”],`  
`“icon”: “medic-health-center”,`  
`“create_form”: “form:contact:community_health_center:create”,`  
`“edit_form”: “form:contact:community_health_center:edit”`  
`},`  
`{`  
`“id”: “primary_health_center”,`  
`“name_key”: “contact.type.primary_health_center”,`  
`“group_key”: “contact.type.primary_health_center.plural”,`  
`“create_key”: “contact.type.primary_health_center.new”,`  
`“edit_key”: “contact.type.place.edit”,`  
`“parents”: [“community_health_center”],`  
`“icon”: “medic-health-center”,`  
`“create_form”: “form:contact:primary_health_center:create”,`  
`“edit_form”: “form:contact:primary_health_center:edit”`  
`},`  
`{`  
`“id”: “health_and_wellness_center”,`  
`“name_key”: “contact.type.health_and_wellness_center”,`  
`“group_key”: “contact.type.health_and_wellness_center.plural”,`  
`“create_key”: “contact.type.health_and_wellness_center.new”,`  
`“edit_key”: “contact.type.place.edit”,`  
`“parents”: [“primary_health_center”],`  
`“icon”: “medic-clinic”,`  
`“create_form”: “form:contact:health_and_wellness_center:create”,`  
`“edit_form”: “form:contact:health_and_wellness_center:edit”`  
`},`  
`{`  
`“id”: “village”,`  
`“name_key”: “contact.type.village”,`  
`“group_key”: “contact.type.village.plural”,`  
`“create_key”: “contact.type.village.new”,`  
`“edit_key”: “contact.type.place.edit”,`  
`“parents”: [“health_and_wellness_center”],`  
`“icon”: “medic-clinic”,`  
`“create_form”: “form:contact:village:create”,`  
`“edit_form”: “form:contact:village:edit”`  
`},`  
`{`  
`“id”: “person”,`  
`“name_key”: “contact.type.person”,`  
`“group_key”: “contact.type.person.plural”,`  
`“create_key”: “contact.type.person.new”,`  
`“edit_key”: “contact.type.person.edit”,`  
`“primary_contact_key”: “clinic.field.contact”,`  
`“parents”: [`  
`“village”,`  
`“health_and_wellness_center”,`  
`“primary_health_center”,`  
`“community_health_center”`  
`],`  
`“icon”: “medic-person”,`  
`“create_form”: “form:contact:person:create”,`  
`“edit_form”: “form:contact:person:edit”,`  
`“person”: true`  
`},`  
`{`  
`“id”: “patient”,`  
`“name_key”: “contact.type.patient”,`  
`“group_key”: “contact.type.patient.plural”,`  
`“create_key”: “contact.type.patient.new”,`  
`“edit_key”: “contact.type.patient.edit”,`  
`“parents”: [`  
`“village”,`  
`“health_and_wellness_center”,`  
`“primary_health_center”,`  
`“community_health_center”`  
`],`  
`“icon”: “medic-person”,`  
`“create_form”: “form:contact:patient:create”,`  
`“edit_form”: “form:contact:patient:edit”,`  
`“person”: true`  
`}`  
`]`

\*\*In excel we are referring to the primary health center as: select-contact type-primary\_health\_center  
\*\*  
@antony can you please help us out to figure above issue.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![antony](https://communityhealthtoolkit.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/antony/32/69_2.png) [@antony](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/u/antony)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 9:21am UTC](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/t/unable-to-map-the-phc-hierarchy-hospitals-into-a-dropdown/5617/2 "2026-05-18T09:21:13Z")

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Thanks @Ramu for the question. Tagging @Ben_Kiarie, @binod, @elijah and @paulalogno to guide you on how you can configure the drop down.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ramu](https://communityhealthtoolkit.b-cdn.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e95f7d/32.png) [@Ramu](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/u/Ramu)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2026, 4:03am UTC](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/t/unable-to-map-the-phc-hierarchy-hospitals-into-a-dropdown/5617/3 "2026-05-19T04:03:58Z")

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Hi Team, @Ben_Kiarie @binod

Can you please guide our team on how we can configure the dropdown

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![binod](https://communityhealthtoolkit.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/binod/32/60_2.png) [@binod](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/u/binod)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2026, 5:32am UTC](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/t/unable-to-map-the-phc-hierarchy-hospitals-into-a-dropdown/5617/4 "2026-05-19T05:32:50Z")

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Hi @Ramu,

> state → district → district\_hospital → community\_health\_center → primary\_health\_center → health\_and\_wellness\_center → village

A restricted (offline) user who logs in at village level will not have access to Primary health centers created above their hierarchy. I am not aware of any supported method of dynamically populating the dropdown list using CHT in this case.

Is hardcoded choice list an option here?

Here is a forum topic about loading a large number of choices:

> [@Select choice question type with a lot of choices](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/t/select-choice-question-type-with-a-lot-of-choices/3261):
>
> I have a select\_one question type with a lot of choices (16k plus) to select (with choice\_filter of course : ). cht-conf times out while trying to validate the contact form (works on my local container but takes like 13 minutes, fails completely on my server enviroment). Is there any workaround around this. Also does the core framework support attaching an external choices csv of xml file like ODK does using the command select\_one\_from\_file choices.csv? I’ve tried with no joy.

@jkuester had shared there that loading choices from CSV was not supported in CHT. I don’t think we have added support for it, but could there be another way to achieve this?

_Update_: I see that loading choices from external dataset (XML, and possibly CSV in the future) is a work in progress in cht-core:

- [feat(#9875): support select\_\*\_from\_file external datasets in forms by vikrantwiz02 · Pull Request #10971 · medic/cht-core · GitHub](https://github.com/medic/cht-core/pull/10971)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ramu](https://communityhealthtoolkit.b-cdn.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e95f7d/32.png) [@Ramu](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/u/Ramu)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2026, 6:52am UTC](https://forum.communityhealthtoolkit.org/t/unable-to-map-the-phc-hierarchy-hospitals-into-a-dropdown/5617/5 "2026-05-19T06:52:35Z")

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Thanks @binod,

@jkuester Please let us know if there are any other alternatives