Tickbox (Single)
One tickbox representing a yes or no. Stored as a whole number — one or zero.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data:
- Datastores — the datastore, then Table Designer to add or edit a field
When to use it
- A flag: active, approved, archived, opted in.
- A confirmation: terms accepted, checked, verified.
- Anything genuinely binary.
It joins, so it reports well
Single-select types are joinable — the stored value points at one thing, so a report can join through it and group by the source record. That is what makes "count by category" a query rather than an exercise.
The three-state problem
A tickbox has two visible states and often three meanings: yes, no, and nobody has said.
An unticked box on a new record usually means "not answered", not "no" — but it is stored identically to a deliberate no. That is fine for "archived" and actively misleading for "consent given", where "we never asked" and "they declined" are very different facts.
Where the distinction matters, use a dropdown with three options and make the absence explicit.
Name it for the ticked state
"Active" ticked means active. "Not active" ticked means... people will get it wrong, and so will whoever writes a report against it. Avoid negatives entirely — "Inactive" and "Do not contact" produce double negatives in filters that nobody reads correctly.
Set the default deliberately
Most tickboxes should default to unticked, because that is the safe state for a flag that grants something. A field defaulting to ticked is a decision made on the user's behalf, and for anything consent-shaped that is the wrong way round.
Do not use it for a small set
Three tickboxes representing mutually exclusive options is a dropdown wearing a disguise, and nothing stops two being ticked at once. If exactly one should be true, use radios or a dropdown and let the type enforce it.
Tickbox or toggle switch?
They look similar and are not the same. The tickbox stores a whole number and joins; the toggle switch stores a floating-point value and does not. For an ordinary yes-or-no flag on a datastore, the tickbox is the right choice.
Worked example
A contact datastore uses tickboxes for "active" and "staff member", both defaulting to unticked and both named positively. Marketing consent is deliberately not a tickbox but a three-option dropdown — given, declined, not asked — because the difference matters and a blank tickbox could not express it.
Recommendations
- Name it for the ticked state, and never use a negative.
- Default to unticked for anything that grants something.
- Use three options where "not asked" is a real state.
- Never fake a single choice with several tickboxes.