Chosen - Prototype Version (v1.8.7)
Chosen is a Prototype plugin that makes long, unwieldy select boxes much more user-friendly.
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Turns This
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Turns This
Into This
Single Select with Groups
Multiple Select with Groups
Chosen automatically highlights selected options and removes disabled options.
Single Select
Multiple Select
The disable_search_threshold option can be specified to hide the search input on single selects if there are n or fewer options.
new Chosen($("chosen_select_field"),{disable_search_threshold: 10});
Chosen automatically sets the default field text ("Choose a country...") by reading the select element's data-placeholder value. If no data-placeholder value is present, it will default to "Select an Option" or "Select Some Options" depending on whether the select is single or multiple. You can change these elements in the plugin js file as you see fit.
<select data-placeholder="Choose a country..." multiple class="chosen-select">
Note: on single selects, the first element is assumed to be selected by the browser. To take advantage of the default text support, you will need to include a blank option as the first element of your select list.
Setting the "No results" search text is as easy as passing an option when you create Chosen:
new Chosen($("chosen_select_field"),{no_results_text: "Oops, nothing found!"});
Single Select
Multiple Select
You can easily limit how many options the user can select:
new Chosen($("chosen_select_field"),{max_selected_options: 5});
If you try to select another option with limit reached chosen:maxselected event is triggered:
$("chosen_select_field").observe("chosen:maxselected", function(evt) { ... });
When a single select box isn't a required field, you can set allow_single_deselect: true and Chosen will add a UI element for option deselection. This will only work if the first option has blank text.
You can set right-to-left text by setting rtl: true
$(".chosen-select").chosen({rtl: true});
Single Right-to-Left Select
Multiple Right-to-Left Select
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Observing Form Field Changes
When working with form fields, you often want to perform some behavior after a value has been selected or deselected. Whenever a user selects a field in Chosen, it triggers a "change" event on the original form field. That lets you do something like this:
$("#form_field").chosen().change( … );
Note: Prototype doesn't offer support for triggering standard browser events. Event.simulate is required to trigger the change event when using the Prototype version.
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Updating Chosen Dynamically
If you need to update the options in your select field and want Chosen to pick up the changes, you'll need to trigger the "chosen:updated" event on the field. Chosen will re-build itself based on the updated content.
Event.fire($("form_field"), "chosen:updated");
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Destroying Chosen
To destroy Chosen and revert back to the native select, call destroy on the Chosen instance:
chosen = new Chosen($("form_field"));
// ...later
chosen.destroy();
Using a custom width with Chosen is as easy as passing an option when you create Chosen:
new Chosen($("chosen_select_field"),{width: "95%"});
Single Select
Multiple Select
Use labels just like you would a standard select
Using Chosen is easy as can be.
- Download the plugin and copy the chosen files to your app.
- Activate the plugin by creating a new instance of Chosen: New Chosen(some_form_field,some_options);
- Disco.
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Do you have all the available options documented somewhere?
Yes! You can find them on the options page.
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Something doesn't work. Can you fix it?
Yes! Please report all issues using the GitHub issue tracking tool. Please include the plugin version (jQuery or Prototype), browser and OS. The more information provided, the easier it is to fix a problem.
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What browsers are supported?
All modern desktop browsers are supported (Firefox, Chrome, Safari and IE9). Legacy support for IE8 is also enabled. Chosen is disabled on iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android mobile devices (more information).