A vanilla JS customisable select box/text input plugin ⚡️
A vanilla, lightweight (~19kb gzipped 🎉), configurable select box/text input plugin. Similar to Select2 and Selectize but without the jQuery dependency.
With NPM:
npm install choices.js
With Yarn:
yarn add choices.js
From a CDN:
Note: There is sometimes a delay before the latest version of Choices is reflected on the CDN.
Or include Choices directly:
Note: If you pass a selector which targets multiple elements, the first matching element will be used. Versions prior to 8.x.x would return multiple Choices instances.
// Pass single element const element = document.querySelector('.js-choice'); const choices = new Choices(element);// Pass reference const choices = new Choices('[data-trigger]'); const choices = new Choices('.js-choice');
// Pass jQuery element const choices = new Choices($('.js-choice')[0]);
// Passing options (with default options) const choices = new Choices(element, { silent: false, items: [], choices: [], renderChoiceLimit: -1, maxItemCount: -1, addItems: true, addItemFilter: null, removeItems: true, removeItemButton: false, editItems: false, duplicateItemsAllowed: true, delimiter: ',', paste: true, searchEnabled: true, searchChoices: true, searchFloor: 1, searchResultLimit: 4, searchFields: ['label', 'value'], position: 'auto', resetScrollPosition: true, shouldSort: true, shouldSortItems: false, sorter: () => {...}, placeholder: true, placeholderValue: null, searchPlaceholderValue: null, prependValue: null, appendValue: null, renderSelectedChoices: 'auto', loadingText: 'Loading...', noResultsText: 'No results found', noChoicesText: 'No choices to choose from', itemSelectText: 'Press to select', addItemText: (value) => { return
Press Enter to add <b>"${value}"</b>
; }, maxItemText: (maxItemCount) => { returnOnly ${maxItemCount} values can be added
; }, valueComparer: (value1, value2) => { return value1 === value2; }, classNames: { containerOuter: 'choices', containerInner: 'choices__inner', input: 'choices__input', inputCloned: 'choices__input--cloned', list: 'choices__list', listItems: 'choices__list--multiple', listSingle: 'choices__list--single', listDropdown: 'choices__list--dropdown', item: 'choices__item', itemSelectable: 'choices__item--selectable', itemDisabled: 'choices__item--disabled', itemChoice: 'choices__item--choice', placeholder: 'choices__placeholder', group: 'choices__group', groupHeading: 'choices__heading', button: 'choices__button', activeState: 'is-active', focusState: 'is-focused', openState: 'is-open', disabledState: 'is-disabled', highlightedState: 'is-highlighted', selectedState: 'is-selected', flippedState: 'is-flipped', loadingState: 'is-loading', noResults: 'has-no-results', noChoices: 'has-no-choices' }, // Choices uses the great Fuse library for searching. You // can find more options here: https://github.com/krisk/Fuse#options fuseOptions: { include: 'score' }, callbackOnInit: null, callbackOnCreateTemplates: null });
| Word | Definition | | ------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Choice | A choice is a value a user can select. A choice would be equivalent to the
element within a select input. | | Group | A group is a collection of choices. A group should be seen as equivalent to a element within a select input. | | Item | An item is an inputted value (text input) or a selected choice (select element). In the context of a select element, an item is equivalent to a selected option element: whereas in the context of a text input an item is equivalent to |Type:
BooleanDefault:
false
Input types affected:
text,
select-single,
select-multiple
Usage: Optionally suppress console errors and warnings.
Type:
ArrayDefault:
[]
Input types affected:
text
Usage: Add pre-selected items (see terminology) to text input.
Pass an array of strings:
['value 1', 'value 2', 'value 3']
Pass an array of objects:
[{ value: 'Value 1', label: 'Label 1', id: 1 }, { value: 'Value 2', label: 'Label 2', id: 2, customProperties: { random: 'I am a custom property' } }]
Type:
ArrayDefault:
[]
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Add choices (see terminology) to select input.
Pass an array of objects:
[{ value: 'Option 1', label: 'Option 1', selected: true, disabled: false, }, { value: 'Option 2', label: 'Option 2', selected: false, disabled: true, customProperties: { description: 'Custom description about Option 2', random: 'Another random custom property' }, }]
Type:
NumberDefault:
-1
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: The amount of choices to be rendered within the dropdown list ("-1" indicates no limit). This is useful if you have a lot of choices where it is easier for a user to use the search area to find a choice.
Type:
NumberDefault:
-1
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: The amount of items a user can input/select ("-1" indicates no limit).
Type:
BooleanDefault:
true
Input types affected:
text
Usage: Whether a user can add items.
Type:
BooleanDefault:
true
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Whether a user can remove items.
Type:
BooleanDefault:
false
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Whether each item should have a remove button.
Type:
BooleanDefault:
false
Input types affected:
text
Usage: Whether a user can edit items. An item's value can be edited by pressing the backspace.
Type:
BooleanDefault:
true
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Whether duplicate inputted/chosen items are allowed
Type:
StringDefault:
,
Input types affected:
text
Usage: What divides each value. The default delimiter separates each value with a comma:
"Value 1, Value 2, Value 3".
Type:
BooleanDefault:
true
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Whether a user can paste into the input.
Type:
BooleanDefault:
true
Input types affected:
select-one
Usage: Whether a search area should be shown. Note: Multiple select boxes will always show search areas.
Type:
BooleanDefault:
true
Input types affected:
select-one
Usage: Whether choices should be filtered by input or not. If
false, the search event will still emit, but choices will not be filtered.
Type:
Array/StringDefault:
['label', 'value']
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Specify which fields should be used when a user is searching. If you have added custom properties to your choices, you can add these values thus:
['label', 'value', 'customProperties.example'].
Type:
NumberDefault:
1
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: The minimum length a search value should be before choices are searched.
Type:
NumberDefault:
4
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: The maximum amount of search results to show.
Type:
StringDefault:
auto
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Whether the dropdown should appear above (
top) or below (
bottom) the input. By default, if there is not enough space within the window the dropdown will appear above the input, otherwise below it.
Type:
BooleanDefault:
true
Input types affected:
select-multiple
Usage: Whether the scroll position should reset after adding an item.
Type:
string | RegExp | FunctionDefault:
null
Input types affected:
text
Usage: A RegExp or string (will be passed to RegExp constructor internally) or filter function that will need to return
truefor a user to successfully add an item.
Example:
// Only adds items matching the text test new Choices(element, { addItemFilter: (value) => { return ['orange', 'apple', 'banana'].includes(value); }; });// only items ending to
-red
new Choices(element, { addItemFilter: '-red$'; });
Type:
BooleanDefault:
true
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Whether choices and groups should be sorted. If false, choices/groups will appear in the order they were given.
Type:
BooleanDefault:
false
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Whether items should be sorted. If false, items will appear in the order they were selected.
Type:
FunctionDefault: sortByAlpha
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: The function that will sort choices and items before they are displayed (unless a user is searching). By default choices and items are sorted by alphabetical order.
Example:
// Sorting via length of label from largest to smallest const example = new Choices(element, { sorter: function(a, b) { return b.label.length - a.label.length; }, };
Type:
BooleanDefault:
true
Input types affected:
text
Usage: Whether the input should show a placeholder. Used in conjunction with
placeholderValue. If
placeholderis set to true and no value is passed to
placeholderValue, the passed input's placeholder attribute will be used as the placeholder value.
Note: For select boxes, the recommended way of adding a placeholder is as follows:
This is a placeholder ... ... ...
For backward compatibility,
This is a placeholderis also supported.
Type:
StringDefault:
null
Input types affected:
text
Usage: The value of the inputs placeholder.
Type:
StringDefault:
null
Input types affected:
select-one
Usage: The value of the search inputs placeholder.
Type:
StringDefault:
null
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Prepend a value to each item added/selected.
Type:
StringDefault:
null
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Append a value to each item added/selected.
Type:
StringDefault:
auto
Input types affected:
select-multiple
Usage: Whether selected choices should be removed from the list. By default choices are removed when they are selected in multiple select box. To always render choices pass
always.
Type:
StringDefault:
Loading...
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: The text that is shown whilst choices are being populated via AJAX.
Type:
String/FunctionDefault:
No results found
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: The text that is shown when a user's search has returned no results. Optionally pass a function returning a string.
Type:
String/FunctionDefault:
No choices to choose from
Input types affected:
select-multiple
Usage: The text that is shown when a user has selected all possible choices. Optionally pass a function returning a string.
Type:
StringDefault:
Press to select
Input types affected:
select-multiple,
select-one
Usage: The text that is shown when a user hovers over a selectable choice.
Type:
String/FunctionDefault:
Press Enter to add "${value}"
Input types affected:
text
Usage: The text that is shown when a user has inputted a new item but has not pressed the enter key. To access the current input value, pass a function with a
valueargument (see the default config for an example), otherwise pass a string.
Type:
String/FunctionDefault:
Only ${maxItemCount} values can be added
Input types affected:
text
Usage: The text that is shown when a user has focus on the input but has already reached the max item count. To access the max item count, pass a function with a
maxItemCountargument (see the default config for an example), otherwise pass a string.
Type:
FunctionDefault:
strict equality
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: A custom compare function used when finding choices by value (using
setChoiceByValue).
Example:
const example = new Choices(element, { valueComparer: (a, b) => value.trim() === b.trim(), };
Type:
ObjectDefault:
classNames: { containerOuter: 'choices', containerInner: 'choices__inner', input: 'choices__input', inputCloned: 'choices__input--cloned', list: 'choices__list', listItems: 'choices__list--multiple', listSingle: 'choices__list--single', listDropdown: 'choices__list--dropdown', item: 'choices__item', itemSelectable: 'choices__item--selectable', itemDisabled: 'choices__item--disabled', itemOption: 'choices__item--choice', group: 'choices__group', groupHeading : 'choices__heading', button: 'choices__button', activeState: 'is-active', focusState: 'is-focused', openState: 'is-open', disabledState: 'is-disabled', highlightedState: 'is-highlighted', selectedState: 'is-selected', flippedState: 'is-flipped', selectedState: 'is-highlighted', }
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Classes added to HTML generated by Choices. By default classnames follow the BEM notation.
Note: For each callback,
thisrefers to the current instance of Choices. This can be useful if you need access to methods (
this.disable()) or the config object (
this.config).
Type:
FunctionDefault:
null
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Function to run once Choices initialises.
Type:
FunctionDefault:
nullArguments:
template
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Function to run on template creation. Through this callback it is possible to provide custom templates for the various components of Choices (see terminology). For Choices to work with custom templates, it is important you maintain the various data attributes defined here. If you want just extend a little original template then you may use
Choices.defaults.templatesto get access to original template function.
Example:
const example = new Choices(element, { callbackOnCreateTemplates: () => ({ input: (...args) => Object.assign(Choices.defaults.templates.input.call(this, ...args), { type: 'email', }), }), });
or more complex:
const example = new Choices(element, { callbackOnCreateTemplates: function(template) { return { item: (classNames, data) => { return template(`★ ${data.label}`); }, choice: (classNames, data) => { return template(`0 ? 'role="treeitem"' : 'role="option"' }> ★ ${data.label}`); }, }; }, });
Note: Events fired by Choices behave the same as standard events. Each event is triggered on the element passed to Choices (accessible via
this.passedElement. Arguments are accessible within the
event.detailobject.
Example:
const element = document.getElementById('example'); const example = new Choices(element);element.addEventListener( 'addItem', function(event) { // do something creative here... console.log(event.detail.id); console.log(event.detail.value); console.log(event.detail.label); console.log(event.detail.customProperties); console.log(event.detail.groupValue); }, false, );
// or const example = new Choices(document.getElementById('example'));
example.passedElement.element.addEventListener( 'addItem', function(event) { // do something creative here... console.log(event.detail.id); console.log(event.detail.value); console.log(event.detail.label); console.log(event.detail.customProperties); console.log(event.detail.groupValue); }, false, );
Payload:
id, value, label, customProperties, groupValue, keyCode
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered each time an item is added (programmatically or by the user).
Payload:
id, value, label, customProperties, groupValue
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered each time an item is removed (programmatically or by the user).
Payload:
id, value, label, groupValue
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered each time an item is highlighted.
Payload:
id, value, label, groupValue
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered each time an item is unhighlighted.
Payload:
choice
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered each time a choice is selected by a user, regardless if it changes the value of the input.
choiceis a Choice object here (see terminology or typings file)
Payload:
value
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered each time an item is added/removed by a user.
Payload:
value,
resultCount
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered when a user types into an input to search choices.
Payload: -
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered when the dropdown is shown.
Payload: -
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered when the dropdown is hidden.
Payload:
el
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Triggered when a choice from the dropdown is highlighted. The
elargument is choices.passedElement object that was affected.
Methods can be called either directly or by chaining:
// Calling a method by chaining const choices = new Choices(element, { addItems: false, removeItems: false, }) .setValue(['Set value 1', 'Set value 2']) .disable();// Calling a method directly const choices = new Choices(element, { addItems: false, removeItems: false, });
choices.setValue(['Set value 1', 'Set value 2']); choices.disable();
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple,
select-one
Usage: Kills the instance of Choices, removes all event listeners and returns passed input to its initial state.
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple,
select-one
Usage: Creates a new instance of Choices, adds event listeners, creates templates and renders a Choices element to the DOM.
Note: This is called implicitly when a new instance of Choices is created. This would be used after a Choices instance had already been destroyed (using
destroy()).
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Highlight each chosen item (selected items can be removed).
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Un-highlight each chosen item.
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Remove each item by a given value.
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Remove each selectable item.
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Remove each item the user has selected.
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Show option list dropdown (only affects select inputs).
Input types affected:
text,
select-multiple
Usage: Hide option list dropdown (only affects select inputs).
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Set choices of select input via an array of objects (or function that returns array of object or promise of it), a value field name and a label field name.
This behaves the similar as passing items via the
choicesoption but can be called after initialising Choices. This can also be used to add groups of choices (see example 3); Optionally pass a true
replaceChoicesvalue to remove any existing choices. Optionally pass a
customPropertiesobject to add additional data to your choices (useful when searching/filtering etc). Passing an empty array as the first parameter, and a true
replaceChoicesis the same as calling
clearChoices(see below).
Example 1:
const example = new Choices(element);example.setChoices( [ { value: 'One', label: 'Label One', disabled: true }, { value: 'Two', label: 'Label Two', selected: true }, { value: 'Three', label: 'Label Three' }, ], 'value', 'label', false, );
Example 2:
const example = new Choices(element);// Passing a function that returns Promise of choices example.setChoices(async () => { try { const items = await fetch('/items'); return items.json(); } catch (err) { console.error(err); } });
Example 3:
const example = new Choices(element);example.setChoices( [ { label: 'Group one', id: 1, disabled: false, choices: [ { value: 'Child One', label: 'Child One', selected: true }, { value: 'Child Two', label: 'Child Two', disabled: true }, { value: 'Child Three', label: 'Child Three' }, ], }, { label: 'Group two', id: 2, disabled: false, choices: [ { value: 'Child Four', label: 'Child Four', disabled: true }, { value: 'Child Five', label: 'Child Five' }, { value: 'Child Six', label: 'Child Six', customProperties: { description: 'Custom description about child six', random: 'Another random custom property', }, }, ], }, ], 'value', 'label', false, );
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Clear all choices from select
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Get value(s) of input (i.e. inputted items (text) or selected choices (select)). Optionally pass an argument of
trueto only return values rather than value objects.
Example:
const example = new Choices(element); const values = example.getValue(true); // returns ['value 1', 'value 2']; const valueArray = example.getValue(); // returns [{ active: true, choiceId: 1, highlighted: false, id: 1, label: 'Label 1', value: 'Value 1'}, { active: true, choiceId: 2, highlighted: false, id: 2, label: 'Label 2', value: 'Value 2'}];
Input types affected:
text
Usage: Set value of input based on an array of objects or strings. This behaves exactly the same as passing items via the
itemsoption but can be called after initialising Choices.
Example:
const example = new Choices(element);// via an array of objects example.setValue([ { value: 'One', label: 'Label One' }, { value: 'Two', label: 'Label Two' }, { value: 'Three', label: 'Label Three' }, ]);
// or via an array of strings example.setValue(['Four', 'Five', 'Six']);
Input types affected:
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Set value of input based on existing Choice.
valuecan be either a single string or an array of strings
Example:
const example = new Choices(element, { choices: [ { value: 'One', label: 'Label One' }, { value: 'Two', label: 'Label Two', disabled: true }, { value: 'Three', label: 'Label Three' }, ], });example.setChoiceByValue('Two'); // Choice with value of 'Two' has now been selected.
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Removes all items, choices and groups. Use with caution.
Input types affected:
text
Usage: Clear input of any user inputted text.
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Disables input from accepting new value/selecting further choices.
Input types affected:
text,
select-one,
select-multiple
Usage: Enables input to accept new values/select further choices.
Choices is compiled using Babel targeting browsers with more than 1% of global usage and expecting that features listed below are available or polyfilled in browser. You may see exact list of target browsers by running
npx browserslistwithing this repository folder. If you need to support a browser that does not have one of the features listed below, I suggest including a polyfill from the very good polyfill.io:
Polyfill example used for the demo:
Features used in Choices:
Array.from Array.prototype.find Array.prototype.includes Symbol Symbol.iterator DOMTokenList Object.assign CustomEvent Element.prototype.classList Element.prototype.closest Element.prototype.dataset
To setup a local environment: clone this repo, navigate into its directory in a terminal window and run the following command:
npm install
| Task | Usage | | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | |
npm run start| Fire up local server for development | |
npm run test:unit| Run sequence of tests once | |
npm run test:unit:watch| Fire up test server and re-test on file change | |
npm run test:e2e| Run sequence of e2e tests (with local server) | |
npm run test| Run both unit and e2e tests | |
npm run cypress:open| Run Cypress e2e tests (GUI) | |
npm run cypress:run| Run Cypress e2e tests (CLI) | |
npm run js:build| Compile Choices to an uglified JavaScript file | |
npm run css:watch| Watch SCSS files for changes. On a change, run build process | |
npm run css:build| Compile, minify and prefix SCSS files to CSS |
MIT License
Want to use Choices as a web component? You're in luck. Adidas have built one for their design system which can be found here.
Thanks to @mikefrancis for sending me on a hunt for a non-jQuery solution for select boxes that eventually led to this being built!