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Multi-Select with Checkboxes Plugin

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Kasey asked on 04 Dec 2012, 05:11 PM

I hacked together a Kendo plugin that uses the drop down UI (and associated styling), does multi select using checkboxes, and is bindable against a Kendo MVVM view model. A multiselect drop-down is a huge gap in the Kendo Web toolkit, so I figured it might be useful to others as well.

Fiddle is here: http://jsfiddle.net/bDvkQ/

The reason for using check boxes is so that the user may select many items in one pass. The default behavior of other types of multi-select drop-downs (e.g. Chosen) requires 2*n clicks for n selections; one click to open the drop down, and a second click to make a selection, then the popup closes again. This is fine for infrequently used forms, but when the user hits the same form dozens of times a day, minimizing user clicks is important. This drop-down requires n+2 clicks for n selections.

This could benefit from Select All and Clear actions as well, but I ran out of time. Feel free to hack on this further to suit your needs. As-is, no warranties, and all that.

Kasey

56 Answers, 1 is accepted

Accepted

answered on 19 Dec 2012, 06:20 PM

Here is a fork with the option label.

http://jsfiddle.net/xgVpX/

However, there are still a lot of things missing from this example.

Select/Clear All buttons
Clicking text should also toggle the text box
Auto-resize when data-bound (still a mystery why the drop-down list does not do this)
Change icon to differentiate between this and a normal drop-down
Accessor should return an observable array, otherwise Kendo framework converts array with single value to (non-array) plain value in bound view model
value function should set checkbox values even when input array is empty (equivalent to clearing all checkboxes)
when value is changed (through value function or popup close event), this should trigger the change event on kendo control (to update MVVM model) and it's original element (in case any other event listeners are attached to the input element)

answered on 31 May 2013, 04:26 PM

I made 2 more changes to the last version from Ron DeFreitas:

You can now select a checkbox by clicking on the label as well.
The control now works on a <select multiple="multiple"> to be consistent with the official kendo ui multiselect.

Here's the fiddle.

I still think there's a need here for a control like this, as the official multiselect doesn't play very well on mobile (for one thing). Because you can also type something in the control, the keyboard on mobile comes in front of the select list so you can't easily select anything anymore (try it and you'll understand what I mean).
Also what Kasey said in the first post: this control with checkboxes works faster as you only have to click n+2 times in stead of 2*n times in the official one.

I hope telerik will include this as well in the official release one day, either as a separate control, or as an option on the existing multiselect.

answered on 11 Jun 2013, 03:59 PM

@fretje,

I also tried to upgrade, but ran into different problems. In my particular case, I figured out that the binding code was changed in a way that breaks this drop-down-list-based multi-select control. Specifically, I was trying to set a view model value to an array of simple ids like [1,2,3] bound to my control. But the new code expects an object array like [{Id: 1}, {Id: 2}, {Id: 3}] and throws. However, it works fine if you set the Kendo multi-select control to an array of simple values. So, it's pretty annoying that they broke this for me but allow it to work in their widget.

I ultimately had to abandon the upgrade until such time that a 1-pass multi-selection is added to the framework, either with checkboxes or Ctrl-clicking multiple items in one pass. This is a requirement for my users which the new Kendo widget does not meet, and therefore I can't use it.

Kasey

answered on 09 Aug 2013, 04:45 PM

Is it possible to have more than one on a page?

I have the following markup and code and only the first item in the markup is initialized, I can switch the order in the html and the other will show.

<div id="ViewModelModel" class='dealer-filter'>

<select id="oemFilterItems" multiple="multiple" data-role="multiselectbox" data-option-label="OEM..." data-text-field="Name" data-value-field="ID" data-bind="source: oemFilterItemSource, value: oemFilterItems" />

<select id="networkFilterItems" multiple="multiple" data-role="multiselectbox" data-option-label="Network..." data-text-field="Text" data-value-field="Value" data-bind="source: networkFilterItemSource, value: networkFilterItems" />

</div>

01.<script>

02. var viewModel = kendo.observable({

03. networkFilterItems: [],

04. networkFilterItemSource: new kendo.data.DataSource({

05. data: [

06. { Value: 1, Text: "Facebook" },

07. { Value: 2, Text: "Twitter" },

08. { Value: 3, Text: "Google" },

09. { Value: 4, Text: "Blooger" }

10. ]

11. }),

12. oemFilterItems: [],

13. oemFilterItemSource: new kendo.data.DataSource({

14. transport: { read: { url: "/Reputation/Reputation/OEMListFiltered", dataType: "json" } },

15. schema: { data: "Data" }

16. })

17. });

18.

19. $(function () {

20.

21. kendo.bind($("#ViewModelModel"), viewModel);

22. });

23.</script>

answered on 03 Oct 2013, 07:09 PM

Hi Robert,

I really like this implementation, it best represents the functionality I've been looking for with built-in Select All functionality and a count of selected items. Implemented as-is I've experienced a couple of issues and I wondered if you could provide any insight into these. First in the latest version of kendo (all) I get the following error: Uncaught TypeError: Object [object Object] has no method '_valueOnFetch'. This seems to happen in the kendo framework itself where it interprets the nodes as numbers and not as li items. The second error, which doesn't throw any kind of exception is that after selecting all/deselect all the checkboxes no longer show checked. The values are selected correctly, but it appears a toggle count may be off by 1. The one difference between my implementation and your JSFiddle example is that my control is loaded dynamically via AJAX. I was wondering if you had encountered either of these issues or could offer some insight as to why they might be happening. Also if you have any recent enhancements I'd love to see them.

Thanks
Jason

answered on 06 Nov 2013, 02:06 PM

Hi Landon,

This plugin / extension of the kendo dropdownlist will not be supported by the Kendo MVC wrappers, basically because it is my own customisation which the wrappers could not know about.

We have a view model which has a string property that stores the comma separated values used by the value() method of the multiselect.

The data soure comes from another property on our view model which as you can tell is a IDictionary

Essentially you will need to build the multiselect via javascript yourself rather than with the wrappers

Here is a modified snippet of our binding which I have not run, so you may find syntax issues.

@{
var fieldName = ViewData.TemplateInfo.GetFullHtmlFieldName("PropertyName");
// clean up property name to use as an element Id
var fieldId = fieldName.Replace(".", "_");
}

<input id="@(fieldId)" name="@(fieldName)" style="width: 280px" />

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {

$('#@(fieldId)').kendoMultiSelectBox({
dataTextField: "Text",
dataValueField: "Value",
dataSource: @Html.Raw(Json.Encode(Model.FieldLookupData.Select(x => new { Value = x.Key, Text = x.Value }))),
emptySelectionLabel: "Please select...",
value: @Html.Raw(Json.Encode(string.Format("{0}", Model.PropertyName).Split(new []{','})))
});
});
</script>

answered on 06 Dec 2013, 09:04 AM

multiselect.png

Hello Robert,

Its working perfect in your updated js fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/8caNL/10/ if i change jquery version to 1.9.1 but, the same if i tried to copy the code in my local it is not working. Functionality are working fine but when it is chosen it popups like modal window. could you please reply on this.

For Your info : I have attached the image .

answered on 13 Dec 2013, 04:36 AM

Hi guys

I took a look at the Kendo official MultiSelect and it didn't quite serve the purpose that we needed. I've used this checkbox MultiSelectBox widget instead and updated it to work within a grid popup, and using MVVM binding. I had to override / implement the _accessor function for that.

Just now, I've updated the Kendo version to 2013.3.1119 and I'm noticing some really strange behaviour. I thought I'd post a fiddle based on the last one that was posted in this thread, you can find it at http://jsfiddle.net/timweightman/vzX8m/4/.

If anyone has some ideas about what might be causing this weird stuff, please don't hesitate to let me know!

answered on 05 Aug 2014, 09:57 PM

Robert,

A very valuable custom extension to the drop down list element; I've fairly easily implemented it as the filter UI for one of my kendo grid columns, however it isn't immediately apparent to me how to listen for a change to the element values; I know how to apply changes to the kendo grid filter, once I have access to those values. In your Plunker example, you've just got the standalone element wrapped in a DIV, then you're binding the selectionChanged event to a jQuery listener on that DIV's ID. I thought selecting multiple values in my dropdown, then simply pressing the Filter button, would auto-magically apply the filters, as the out-of-the-box drop down does when you select one item. Nothing is happening, however, so I'm unsure how to proceed.

answered on 06 Aug 2014, 12:43 PM

Hi Hunter,

From what I understand (haven't tried it myself), the built in filter menu will expect a single value and the multi select provides an array. I don't think the two will be compatible, if kendo supports its own multiselect as a filter ui then perhaps I am wrong.

You could always try and perform the filtering yourself. You can handle the apply button click on the filter menu and then create filter objects to apply to the datasource.filter function directly. You can even read the existing filters already applied to pre-populate the multiselect next time the menu is shown. Take a look at the datasource api documentation on that one.

Sorry can be of more help, best of luck with it.

Cheers,
Rob.

answered on 11 Aug 2014, 04:56 AM

Thanks! I've taken care of manually applying the selected filters, but there's a few things that I know won't make it past QA;

Here's my issue: The drop down filter still displays the Kendo "logic" box for selecting "is equal to", which I don't want. I'm not sure how to hide this box without affecting all the other filters in column headers since Kendo (I think) doesn't put an ID on them. Also, the Filter and Cancel buttons get blocked by the drop down when the user clicks in the "---Select Value(s)---" block, which means they have to click their selections, then click back above the drop down to close it, thereby making the buttons visible again.

Best case scenario is I would like to hide the "logic" box, for only this column, and move the submit buttons above the drop down box (in effect, where the logic box was, so they are visible while the dropdown list is open.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

answered on 23 Oct 2014, 04:29 PM

Xinzhou,

In my case, my custom multi-select widget represents statuses: I call the function applyStatusFilter when the selectionChanged property of my custom element is fired. Here's what my function looks like:

// Apply the status filters from the multi-select drop down

function applyStatusFilter(statusValues) {

var grid = $("#grid").data("kendoGrid");

var dataSource = grid.dataSource;

var filter = dataSource.filter() || { filters:[], logic: "and" };

var statusFilters = { logic: "or", filters: [] };

var statusArray = statusValues.split(','); // Convert status selections to array

// Strip out any status related filters so we can rebuild and apply new ones

removeFiltersForField(filter, "status");

// Only build status filter array if selections were made in the dropdown...

if (statusArray[0].length > 0) {

// Spin through all the statuses chosen

$.each(statusArray, function (key, value) {

statusFilters.filters.push({

field: "status",

operator: "eq",

value: value

});

}

// Add the status filter to the current filters, if we built any

if (statusFilters.filters.length > 0) {

filter.filters.push(statusFilters);

}

// Apply new filters to grid

dataSource.filter(filter);

}

function removeFiltersForField(expression, field) {

if (expression.filters) {

expression.filters = $.grep(expression.filters, function(filter) {

removeFiltersForField(filter, field);

if (filter.filters) {

return filter.filters.length;

} else {

return filter.field != field;

}

});

}

Hopefully this helps with your situation.

answered on 23 Oct 2014, 04:56 PM

I am adding this filtering to my custom multiselect dropdown, as you can see here:

// Create the custom status multi-select dropdwon

var statusDropdown = $('#statusMultiSelect');

statusDropdown.kendoMultiSelectBox({

dataTextField: 'text',

dataValueField: 'value',

dataSource: {

transport: {

read: {

dataType: 'json',

url: '/home/ajax/getstatuses'

}

},

showSelectAll: false,

emptySelectionLabel: "Status",

selectionChanged: function() {

$("#statusMultiSelect-list").css('display','none'); // Close the dropdown right away

applyStatusFilter(this.value());

}

});

And here is the custom extension of Kendo's dropdownlist that I got from one of the previous posts:

//MultiSelect - A user extension of KendoUI DropDownList widget.

(function ($) {

// shorten references to variables

var kendo = window.kendo,

ui = kendo.ui,

DropDownList = ui.DropDownList,

keys = kendo.keys,

SELECT = "select",

SELECTIONCHANGED = "selectionChanged",

SELECTED = "k-state-selected",

HIGHLIGHTED = "k-state-active",

CHECKBOX = "custom-multiselect-check-item",

SELECTALLITEM = "custom-multiselect-selectAll-item",

MULTISELECTPOPUP = "custom-multiselect-popup",

EMPTYSELECTION = "custom-multiselect-summary-empty";

var lineTemplate = '<input type="checkbox" name="#= {1} #" value="#= {0} #" class="' + CHECKBOX + '" />' +

'<span data-value="#= {0} #">#= {1} #</span>';

var MultiSelectBox = DropDownList.extend({

init: function (element, options) {

options.template = kendo.template(kendo.format(lineTemplate, options.dataValueField, options.dataTextField));

// base call to widget initialization

DropDownList.fn.init.call(this, element, options);

},

options: {

name: "MultiSelectBox",

index: -1,

showSelectAll: null,

preSummaryCount: 1, // number of items to show before summarising

emptySelectionLabel: null, // what to show when no items are selected

selectionChanged: null, // provide callback to invoke when selection has changed

},

events: [

SELECTIONCHANGED

],

refresh: function () {

// base call

DropDownList.fn.refresh.call(this);

this._updateSummary();

$(this.popup.element).addClass(MULTISELECTPOPUP);

},

current: function (candidate) {

return this._current;

},

open: function () {

this._removeSelectAllItem();

this._addSelectAllItem();

DropDownList.fn.open.call(this);

//hook on to popup event because dropdown close does not

//fire consistently when user clicks on some other elements

//like a dataviz chart graphic

this.popup.one('close', $.proxy(this._onPopupClosed, this));

},

_onPopupClosed: function () {

this._removeSelectAllItem();

this._current = null;

//this._highlightCurrent();

this._raiseSelectionChanged();

},

_raiseSelectionChanged: function () {

var currentValue = this.value();

var currentValues = $.map((currentValue.length > 0 ? currentValue.split(",") : []).sort(), function (item) { return item.toString(); });

var oldValues = $.map((this._oldValue || []).sort(), function (item) { return item.toString(); });

// store for next pass

this._oldValue = $.map(currentValues, function (item) { return item.toString(); });

var changedArgs = { newValue: currentValues, oldValue: oldValues };

if (oldValues) {

var hasChanged = ($(oldValues).not(currentValues).length == 0 && $(currentValues).not(oldValues).length == 0) !== true;

if (hasChanged) {

//if (this.options.selectionChanged)

// this.options.selectionChanged(changedArgs);

this.trigger(SELECTIONCHANGED, changedArgs);

}

else if (currentValue.length > 0) {

//if (this.options.selectionChanged)

// this.options.selectionChanged(changedArgs);

this.trigger(SELECTIONCHANGED, changedArgs);

}

},

_addSelectAllItem: function () {

if (!this.options.showSelectAll) return;

var firstListItem = this.ul.children('li:first');

if (firstListItem.length > 0) {

this.selectAllListItem = $('<li tabindex="-1" role="option" unselectable="on" class="k-item ' + SELECTALLITEM + '"></li>').insertBefore(firstListItem);

// fake a data object to use for the template binding below

var selectAllData = {};

selectAllData[this.options.dataValueField] = '*';

selectAllData[this.options.dataTextField] = 'All';

this.selectAllListItem.html(this.options.template(selectAllData));

this._updateSelectAllItem();

this._makeUnselectable(); // required for IE8

}

},

_removeSelectAllItem: function () {

if (this.selectAllListItem) {

this.selectAllListItem.remove();

}

this.selectAllListItem = null;

},

_focus: function (li) {

if (this.popup.visible() && li && this.trigger(SELECT, { item: li })) {

this.close();

return;

}

this.select(li);

},

//_highlightCurrent: function () {

// $('li', this.ul).removeClass(HIGHLIGHTED);

// $(this._current).addClass(HIGHLIGHTED);

//},

_keydown: function (e) {

// currently ignore Home and End keys

// can be added later

if (e.keyCode == kendo.keys.HOME ||

e.keyCode == kendo.keys.END) {

e.preventDefault();

return;

}

DropDownList.fn._keydown.call(this, e);

},

_keypress: function(e) {

// disable existing function

},

_move: function (e) {

var that = this,

key = e.keyCode,

ul = that.ul[0],

down = key === keys.DOWN,

pressed;

if (key === keys.UP || down) {

if (down) {

if (!that.popup.visible()) {

that.toggle(down);

}

if (!that._current) {

that._current = ul.firstChild;

} else {

that._current = ($(that._current)[0].nextSibling || that._current);

}

} else {

//up

// only if anything is highlighted

if (that._current) {

that._current = ($(that._current)[0].previousSibling || ul.firstChild);

}

if (that._current) {

that._scroll(that._current);

}

that._highlightCurrent();

e.preventDefault();

pressed = true;

} else {

pressed = DropDownList.fn._move.call(this, e);

}

return pressed;

},

selectAll: function () {

var unselectedItems = this._getUnselectedListItems();

this._selectItems(unselectedItems);

// todo: raise custom event

},

unselectAll: function () {

var selectedItems = this._getSelectedListItems();

this._selectItems(selectedItems); // will invert the selection

// todo: raise custom event

},

_selectItems: function (listItems) {

var that = this;

$.each(listItems, function (i, item) {

var idx = ui.List.inArray(item, that.ul[0]);

that.select(idx); // select OR unselect

});

},

_selectItem: function () {

// method override to prevent default selection of first item, done by normal dropdown

var that = this,

options = that.options,

useOptionIndex,

value;

useOptionIndex = that._isSelect && !that._initial && !options.value && options.index && !that._bound;

if (!useOptionIndex) {

value = that._selectedValue || options.value || that._accessor();

}

if (value) {

that.value(value);

} else if (that._bound === undefined) {

that.select(options.index);

}

},

_select: function (li) {

var that = this,

value,

text,

idx;

li = that._get(li);

if (li && li[0]) {

idx = ui.List.inArray(li[0], that.ul[0]);

if (idx > -1) {

if (li.hasClass(SELECTED)) {

li.removeClass(SELECTED);

that._uncheckItem(li);

if (this.selectAllListItem && li[0] === this.selectAllListItem[0]) {

this.unselectAll();

}

} else {

li.addClass(SELECTED);

that._checkItem(li);

if (this.selectAllListItem && li[0] === this.selectAllListItem[0]) {

this.selectAll();

}

if (this._open) {

that._current(li);

that._highlightCurrent();

}

var selecteditems = this._getSelectedListItems();

value = [];

text = [];

$.each(selecteditems, function (indx, item) {

var obj = $(item).children("span").first();

value.push(obj.attr("data-value"));

text.push(obj.text());

});

that._updateSummary(text);

that._updateSelectAllItem();

that._accessor(value, idx);

// todo: raise change event (add support for selectedIndex) if required

}

},

_getAllValueListItems: function () {

if (this.selectAllListItem) {

return this.ul.children("li").not(this.selectAllListItem[0]);

} else {

return this.ul.children("li");

}

},

_getSelectedListItems: function () {

return this._getAllValueListItems().filter("." + SELECTED);

},

_getUnselectedListItems: function () {

return this._getAllValueListItems().filter(":not(." + SELECTED + ")");

},

_getSelectedItemsText: function () {

var text = [];

var selecteditems = this._getSelectedListItems();

$.each(selecteditems, function (indx, item) {

var obj = $(item).children("span").first();

text.push(obj.text());

});

return text;

},

_updateSelectAllItem: function () {

if (!this.selectAllListItem) return;

// are all items selected?

if (this._getAllValueListItems().length == this._getSelectedListItems().length) {

this._checkItem(this.selectAllListItem);

this.selectAllListItem.addClass(SELECTED);

}

else {

this._uncheckItem(this.selectAllListItem);

this.selectAllListItem.removeClass(SELECTED);

}

},

_updateSummary: function (itemsText) {

if (!itemsText) {

itemsText = this._getSelectedItemsText();

}

if (itemsText.length == 0) {

this._inputWrapper.addClass(EMPTYSELECTION);

this.text(this.options.emptySelectionLabel);

return;

} else {

this._inputWrapper.removeClass(EMPTYSELECTION);

}

if (itemsText.length <= this.options.preSummaryCount) {

this._textAccessor(itemsText.join(", "));

}

else {

this._textAccessor(itemsText.length + ' selected');

}

},

_checkItem: function (itemContainer) {

if (!itemContainer) return;

itemContainer.children("input").prop("checked", true);

},

_uncheckItem: function (itemContainer) {

if (!itemContainer) return;

itemContainer.children("input").removeAttr("checked");

},

_isItemChecked: function (itemContainer) {

return itemContainer.children("input:checked").length > 0;

},

value: function (value) {

var that = this,

idx,

valuesList = [];

if (value !== undefined) {

if (!$.isArray(value)) {

valuesList.push(value);

this._oldValue = valuesList; // to allow for selectionChanged event

}

else {

valuesList = value;

this._oldValue = value; // to allow for selectionChanged event

}

// clear all selections first

$(that.ul[0]).children("li").removeClass(SELECTED);

$("input", that.ul[0]).removeAttr("checked");

$.each(valuesList, function (indx, item) {

var hasValue;

if (item !== null) {

item = item.toString();

}

that._selectedValue = item;

hasValue = value || (that.options.optionLabel && !that.element[0].disabled && value === "");

if (hasValue && that._fetchItems(value)) {

return;

}

idx = that._index(item);

if (idx > -1) {

that.select(idx);

}

});

that._updateSummary();

}

else {

var selecteditems = this._getSelectedListItems();

return $.map(selecteditems, function(item) {

var obj = $(item).children("span").first();

return obj.attr("data-value");

}).join();

}

},

});

ui.plugin(MultiSelectBox);

})(jQuery);

answered on 09 Dec 2014, 11:33 AM

Hello guys,

Currently, we do not have any specific plans for providing combobox/dropdownlist widgets with multi-select support including the checkboxes in this case. For now, our solution for widget providing multiple selection is Kendo UI MultiSelect.

I encourage every interested in this thread to open/comment in our Feedback portal or send us a pull request (Kendo UI Core is an open-source library).

I will close this thread. If any one would like to share his/her implementation, I would suggest Kendo UI Labs.

Regards,
Georgi Krustev
Telerik

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Multi-Select with Checkboxes Plugin

56 Answers, 1 is accepted