How can I create picklist field on a object, where the values/options of picklist should be the fields of another object?

Question

I am new to salesforce and I have been trying to find answer for this requirement related to our application.

Basically I have a Custom Object Field_Config__c, on which I want to create a picklist field which should have options/values based on the fields defined on another object App_Config__c.

So If App_Config__c has 2 fields Custom_Field1__c, Custom_Field2__c, these fields should come as options or values in the picklist created on Field_Config__c.. and this should happen automatically, such that If I add a new field Custom_Field3__c on App_Config__c, this field should automatically come as an option in the Picklist field added on Field_Config__c.

Please help me on this

Answer 1

Phil rightly points out in a comment that what you are trying to do might be best suited to using Custom Metadata Types, which can have relationships to other schema entities. You can't do that in a Custom Object.

Taking your question literally as written, what you are describing is not possible out of the box. There's two primary code-based solutions:

• Build a custom UI to present field values for this "picklist", which would actually be a text field. The custom UI, such as a Lightning Web Component, could dynamically locate the available values and present a selection interface.
• Build automation that calls the Tooling or Metadata APIs to refresh the values on an actual picklist field on a schedule. It wouldn't be real-time with creation of custom fields on your other object. I strongly discourage this solution; it's expensive, fragile, and requires elevated privileges.

The other option, of course, is redesigning your solution to obviate this requirement, which is what I typically recommend, and might result in your adopting Custom Metadata as referenced above.