Make the limit of inputs per modal 10 instead of 5.

[NorteX-dev]

This is a question specific to the bot API.

When creating a model, one can only add up to 5 text inputs per. I would like to suggest lifting or otherwise increasing this limit.

Why?
In many cases, forms are longer than 5 inputs. In my experience, this has been most notable in bots that take answers for things like staff applications or ticket. It is increadibly frustrating for those specific cases and leads to the developers (me included) using other methods like the classic "send a message and wait for a response in chat" or create buttons with "pages", that open the respective modal.

Lifting or increasing this value would allow developers to make fuller and easier-to-fill-out forms.

There is an argument that being able to add too many inputs per modal could destroy user experience - in my opinion, this is exactly the other way round - the UX suffers because to fill 6 or more inputs a user has to open multiple modals.
Besides, there is already a well-established scrolling mechanic in the modals; if a developer adds 5 paragraph-style fields to a modal, the modal overflows and shows a vertical scrollbar.

I don't know this for sure (please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong) but I don't see why (and if) this change would significantly increase the usage or problems of the API, The only thing that this change would insue would be possibly larger payloads (because of more fields) per request, but I don't think that's a significant enough issue to invalidate my point...

What are the possible solutions?

• increase this limit from 5 to any number higher than 5, for example 10;
• add a pagination mechanic, where a modal could have many pages and the user would be able to go "Next" or "Previous" accordingly or submit the form all together;
• allow opening modals off modal submit interactions (the user still has the ability to leave the loop by clicking "Cancel", ESC on their keyboard or by clicking outside the window).

What are the current workarounds and why are they worse?
For asking the user more questions than 5 (let's say 10 for example), you could currently:

• send a message with 2 buttons, a button "Open Page 1" and "Open Page 2" which would open 2 modals with 5 questions each - not only is this worse in UX than my proposed change - because some users might get confused as to what is happening, this also is cumbersome to do for the developer as they have to keep track of the data in between submits. On top of that, doing this on an application command execution event adds an unnecessary step (from what could be: "AC Executed -> Modal Opened" it would go something like "AC Executed -> Message Sent --- Button Component Executed -> Modal Opened".
• prompt the user like the olden days, by asking a user the question and awaiting an answer - and this solution has mulitple problems, notably being ugly in chat, having a set time limit for most cases (so as to not fill up the bot's memory with infinite collectors) and on top of that, doesn't fall inline with the (fairly new) Discord's message intent and restrictions.

Summerizing, I think that this change would be great both for the developer experience as well as the user experience, at a very slight - if any - cost. Thanks :)

[ftilly]

Why not just paginate the modal? its more secure.

[ftilly]

I believe the limit was also enforced to reduce data harvesting. With fewer inputs, less sensitive data can be collected.

[TwilightZebby]

I believe the limit was also enforced to reduce data harvesting. With fewer inputs, less sensitive data can be collected.

I think the 5-input limit was less because of data security and more because of a lack of UI space on Mobile devices. 🤔

[ftilly]

if a developer adds 5 paragraph-style fields to a modal, the modal overflows and shows a vertical scrollbar.

[ManHatos]

@TwilightZebby modals on mobile open in full screen and are scrollable (just like how it should be on desktop), not sure how lack of UI space on mobile is related to the limit as mentioned
maybe the limit is there due to how modal interactions work, as after 15 minutes the interaction tokens expire and submitting it would throw an error, so maybe having many components to fill could take a while?
either way this expiration (for modals specifically), whether its related to the limit or not, is pretty stupid and should be removed

[NorteX-dev]

I think it's safe to say that this suggestion is not going to get added.
I wanted to also suggest adding select menus and buttons to modals, both way overdue, but I expect the same none-response from that.
Discord has recently dropped the DX and support for bot API significantly, along with community communication, which saddens me. All they care about now is adding Nitro-only features and decorations in their "Discord Store" and frankly I don't believe anyone in-power from Discord will see this thread anyway. Therefore, I'm closing this thread.