Field types

Adminium picks a control from the column: its type, whether it is a foreign key, whether it holds a file, and whether anything has fixed the values it accepts. You can change it — but only to a control the column can actually answer. A slider over a name has no scale; a toggle over a date has nothing to toggle.

What a column gets by default

Your column	Default control
Foreign key	Reference — a search over the other table
A file column	Attachments
A list (a json array, a PostgreSQL array)	Chips
Allowed values, up to four, required	Segmented — the answers as buttons
Allowed values, otherwise	Select
boolean	Toggle row
A money column	Currency — the symbol inside the box
An email / phone / link column	Email, Phone, Link
Any other number	Number
date · time · timestamp	Date · Time · Date and time
json	JSON
Long text with no length limit	Long text
Anything else textual	Text

A read-only column is shown as read-only, whatever its type.

What you may switch it to

Your column	Also available
Foreign key	Choice cards, Select
A file column	Image, Avatar
A list	Check rows
Allowed values	Segmented (up to 5), Pill switch (up to 3), Choice cards (up to 6)
boolean	Check row
A number	Currency; Stepper for whole numbers
Text	Title, Long text, Code, Email, Link, Phone, Password
A date, a time, JSON	Nothing else — the control is the type

The limits on the choice controls are about legibility, not capability: seven segmented buttons in a 440px dialog are unreadable, and a pill switch with four states is a menu wearing the wrong clothes.

Controls worth knowing about

Title is the one large field at the top of a quick-create form. It has no label — the dialog’s own heading says what it is.

Stepper puts − and + beside a whole number, for quantities people nudge.

Password hides what is typed, with a Show control. Adminium never displays a stored value in it: an existing password is left blank, and typing replaces it.

Chips and check rows both edit a list of values. Chips are for a list that is open — tags somebody invents — and check rows for one that is closed.

Choice cards give each answer a line of detail under its name. They are the right control when the choice needs explaining and the wrong one when it does not.

Where the values come from

A control that offers choices needs a list of them. That list is your column’s own allowed values, or an option list attached to it by a rule. It is never invented from the rows already in the table.