Choices.js

A vanilla, lightweight (~19kb gzipped 🎉), configurable select box/text input plugin. Similar to Select2 and Selectize but without the jQuery dependency.

Demo

TL;DR

• Lightweight
• No jQuery dependency
• Configurable sorting
• Flexible styling
• Fast search/filtering
• Clean API
• Right-to-left support
• Custom templates

---

Interested in writing your own ES6 JavaScript plugins? Check out ES6.io for great tutorials! 💪🏼

Sponsored by:

---

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Setup
• Terminology
• Input Types
• Configuration Options
• Callbacks
• Events
• Methods
• Development
• License

Installation

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:

Setup

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,
    allowHTML: true,
    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',
    uniqueItemText: 'Only unique values can be added',
    customAddItemText: 'Only values matching specific conditions can be added',
    addItemText: (value) => {
      return `Press Enter to add <b>"${value}"</b>`;
    },
    maxItemText: (maxItemCount) =&gt; {
      return `Only ${maxItemCount} values can be added`;
    },
    valueComparer: (value1, value2) =&gt; {
      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://fusejs.io/api/options.html
    fuseOptions: {
      includeScore: true
    },
    labelId: '',
    callbackOnInit: null,
    callbackOnCreateTemplates: null
  });

Terminology

Word	Definition
Choice	A choice is a value a user can select. A choice would be equivalent to the <option></option> element within a select input.
Group	A group is a collection of choices. A group should be seen as equivalent to a <optgroup></optgroup> 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: <option selected="" value="Hello"></option> whereas in the context of a text input an item is equivalent to <input value="Hello" type="text">

Input Types

Choices works with the following input types, referenced in the documentation as noted.

HTML Element	Documentation "Input Type"
<input type="text">	text
<select>	select-one
</select>	select-multiple

Configuration Options

silent

Type: Boolean Default: false

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Optionally suppress console errors and warnings.

items

Type: Array Default: []

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'
  }
}]

choices

Type: Array Default: []

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'
  },
}]

renderChoiceLimit

Type: Number Default: -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.

maxItemCount

Type: Number Default: -1

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: The amount of items a user can input/select ("-1" indicates no limit).

addItems

Type: Boolean Default: true

Input types affected: text

Usage: Whether a user can add items.

removeItems

Type: Boolean Default: true

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Whether a user can remove items.

removeItemButton

Type: Boolean Default: false

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Whether each item should have a remove button.

editItems

Type: Boolean Default: false

Input types affected: text

Usage: Whether a user can edit items. An item's value can be edited by pressing the backspace.

allowHTML

Type: Boolean Default: true

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Whether HTML should be rendered in all Choices elements. If false, all elements (placeholder, items, etc.) will be treated as plain text. If true, this can be used to perform XSS scripting attacks if you load choices from a remote source.

Deprecation Warning: This will default to false in a future release.

duplicateItemsAllowed

Type: Boolean Default: true

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Whether duplicate inputted/chosen items are allowed

delimiter

Type: String Default: ,

Input types affected: text

Usage: What divides each value. The default delimiter separates each value with a comma: "Value 1, Value 2, Value 3".

paste

Type: Boolean Default: true

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Whether a user can paste into the input.

searchEnabled

Type: Boolean Default: true

Input types affected: select-one

Usage: Whether a search area should be shown. Note: Multiple select boxes will always show search areas.

searchChoices

Type: Boolean Default: 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.

searchFields

Type: Array/String Default: ['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'].

searchFloor

Type: Number Default: 1

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: The minimum length a search value should be before choices are searched.

searchResultLimit: 4,

Type: Number Default: 4

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: The maximum amount of search results to show.

shadowRoot

Type: Document Element Default: null

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: You can pass along the shadowRoot from your application like so.

var shadowRoot = document
  .getElementById('wrapper')
  .attachShadow({ mode: 'open' });
var choices = new Choices({
  shadowRoot: shadowRoot,
});

position

Type: String Default: 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.

resetScrollPosition

Type: Boolean Default: true

Input types affected: select-multiple

Usage: Whether the scroll position should reset after adding an item.

addItemFilter

Type: string | RegExp | Function Default: 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 true for 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$';
});

shouldSort

Type: Boolean Default: 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.

shouldSortItems

Type: Boolean Default: false

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Whether items should be sorted. If false, items will appear in the order they were selected.

sorter

Type: Function Default: 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;
  },
};

placeholder

Type: Boolean Default: true

Input types affected: text

Usage: Whether the input should show a placeholder. Used in conjunction with placeholderValue. If placeholder is 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:

<select>
  <option value="">This is a placeholder</option>
  <option>...</option>
  <option>...</option>
  <option>...</option>
</select>

For backward compatibility, <option placeholder="">This is a placeholder</option> is also supported.

placeholderValue

Type: String Default: null

Input types affected: text

Usage: The value of the inputs placeholder.

searchPlaceholderValue

Type: String Default: null

Input types affected: select-one

Usage: The value of the search inputs placeholder.

prependValue

Type: String Default: null

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Prepend a value to each item added/selected.

appendValue

Type: String Default: null

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Append a value to each item added/selected.

renderSelectedChoices

Type: String Default: 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.

loadingText

Type: String Default: Loading...

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: The text that is shown whilst choices are being populated via AJAX.

noResultsText

Type: String/Function Default: 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.

noChoicesText

Type: String/Function Default: 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.

itemSelectText

Type: String Default: Press to select

Input types affected: select-multiple, select-one

Usage: The text that is shown when a user hovers over a selectable choice.

addItemText

Type: String/Function Default: 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 value argument (see the default config for an example), otherwise pass a string.

maxItemText

Type: String/Function Default: 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 maxItemCount argument (see the default config for an example), otherwise pass a string.

valueComparer

Type: Function Default: 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(),
};

labelId

Type: String Default: ``

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: The labelId improves accessibility. If set, it will add aria-labelledby to the choices element.

classNames

Type: Object Default:

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.

Callbacks

Note: For each callback, this refers to the current instance of Choices. This can be useful if you need access to methods (this.disable()) or the config object (this.config).

callbackOnInit

Type: Function Default: null

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Function to run once Choices initialises.

callbackOnCreateTemplates

Type: Function Default: null Arguments: 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.templates to get access to original template function.

Templates receive the full Choices config as the first argument to any template, which allows you to conditionally display things based on the options specified.

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(`
          <div data-value="${data.value}" data-id="${data.id}" data-item="" class="${classNames.item} ${
          data.highlighted
            ? classNames.highlightedState
            : classNames.itemSelectable
        } ${
          data.placeholder ? classNames.placeholder : ''
        }">
            <span>★</span> ${data.label}
          </div>
        `);
      },
      choice: ({ classNames }, data) =&gt; {
        return template(`
          <div data-value="${data.value}" data-id="${data.id}" aria-disabled="true" data-choice="" data-select-text="${this.config.itemSelectText}" class="${classNames.item} ${classNames.itemChoice} ${
          data.disabled ? classNames.itemDisabled : classNames.itemSelectable
        }"> 0 ? 'role="treeitem"' : 'role="option"'
        }&gt;
            <span>★</span> ${data.label}
          </div>
        `);
      },
    };
  },
});

Events

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.detail object.

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,
);

addItem

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).

removeItem

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).

highlightItem

Payload: id, value, label, groupValue

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Triggered each time an item is highlighted.

unhighlightItem

Payload: id, value, label, groupValue

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Triggered each time an item is unhighlighted.

choice

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. choice is a Choice object here (see terminology or typings file)

change

Payload: value

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Triggered each time an item is added/removed by a user.

search

Payload: value, resultCount

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Triggered when a user types into an input to search choices.

showDropdown

Payload: -

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Triggered when the dropdown is shown.

hideDropdown

Payload: -

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Triggered when the dropdown is hidden.

highlightChoice

Payload: el

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Triggered when a choice from the dropdown is highlighted. The el argument is choices.passedElement object that was affected.

Methods

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();

destroy();

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.

init();

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()).

highlightAll();

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Highlight each chosen item (selected items can be removed).

unhighlightAll();

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Un-highlight each chosen item.

removeActiveItemsByValue(value);

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Remove each item by a given value.

removeActiveItems(excludedId);

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Remove each selectable item.

removeHighlightedItems();

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Remove each item the user has selected.

showDropdown();

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Show option list dropdown (only affects select inputs).

hideDropdown();

Input types affected: text, select-multiple

Usage: Hide option list dropdown (only affects select inputs).

setChoices(choices, value, label, replaceChoices);

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 choices option but can be called after initialising Choices. This can also be used to add groups of choices (see example 3); Optionally pass a true replaceChoices value to remove any existing choices. Optionally pass a customProperties object to add additional data to your choices (useful when searching/filtering etc). Passing an empty array as the first parameter, and a true replaceChoices is 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,
);

clearChoices();

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Clear all choices from select

getValue(valueOnly)

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 true to 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'}];

setValue(items);

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 items option 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']);

setChoiceByValue(value);

Input types affected: select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Set value of input based on existing Choice. value can 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.

clearStore();

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Removes all items, choices and groups. Use with caution.

clearInput();

Input types affected: text

Usage: Clear input of any user inputted text.

disable();

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Disables input from accepting new value/selecting further choices.

enable();

Input types affected: text, select-one, select-multiple

Usage: Enables input to accept new values/select further choices.

Browser compatibility

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 browserslist within 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

Development

To setup a local environment: clone this repo, navigate into its directory in a terminal window and run the following command:

npm install

NPM tasks

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

Interested in contributing?

We're always interested in having more active maintainers. Please get in touch if you're interested 👍

License

MIT License

Web component

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.

Misc

Thanks to @mikefrancis for sending me on a hunt for a non-jQuery solution for select boxes that eventually led to this being built!