allow new values with chosen.js multiple select

Question

I'm using the chosen.js plugin http://harvesthq.github.com/chosen/ with jQuery to allow the user to select multiple options from a select. However, I now want to be able to let them create values that aren't already present - any idea how to go about this?

EDIT: something similar to SO's own tag selection/creation bar would be close to what I'm after

Preferably without changing or editing the plugin, but will do if required.

The code: HTML:

<p>Select something</p>
<select name="theSelect[]" multiple="multiple">
    <option value="First Option">First Option</option>
    <option value="Second Option">Second Option</option>
</select>

Javascript:

$(function(){
    $('select').chosen();
});

So if a user were to type in "Third Option", i'd like to add that to the list and have it selected. The value and display name are / will be the same so that's not a concern

Answer 1

According to the documentation you can try doing something like this:

$('select').append('<option>test</option>');
$('select').trigger('liszt:updated');

As Tony stated in the comments below:

"Starting with version 1.0 which the trigger is now "chosen:updated". See harvesthq.github.io/chosen/#change-update-events"

Answer 2

I stumbled upon this looking for the same ideas. Seems like its a pretty popular feature request, and a couple of forks have implemented it. Looks like it'll be merged into the master branch soon enough.

+1 for this particular pull which worked a charm: https://github.com/harvesthq/chosen/pull/166

You can view Koenpunt's fork here: https://github.com/koenpunt/chosen

Answer 3

Here's a simple way that I did it:

$(".search-field").find("input").live( "keydown", function (evt) {
    var stroke;
    stroke = (_ref = evt.which) != null ? _ref : evt.keyCode;
    if (stroke == 9) { // 9 = tab key
        $('#tags').append('<option value="' + $(this).val() + '" selected="selected">' + $(this).val() + '</option>');
        $('#tags').trigger('chosen:updated');
    }
});

Answer 4

I was just trying to solve the same problem. I wound up modifying the source code a bit. Here's the new keyup_checker function. Take a look at case 13:

AbstractChosen.prototype.keyup_checker = function(evt) {
  var stroke, _ref;
  stroke = (_ref = evt.which) != null ? _ref : evt.keyCode;
  this.search_field_scale();
  switch (stroke) {
    case 8:
      if (this.is_multiple && this.backstroke_length < 1 && this.choices > 0) {
        return this.keydown_backstroke();
      } else if (!this.pending_backstroke) {
        this.result_clear_highlight();
        return this.results_search();
      }
      break;
    case 13:
      evt.preventDefault();
      if (this.results_showing) {
        if (!this.is_multiple || this.result_highlight) {
          return this.result_select(evt);
        }  

        $(this.form_field).append('<option>' + $(evt.target).val() + '</option>');
        $(this.form_field).trigger('liszt:updated');
        this.result_highlight = this.search_results.find('li.active-result').last();
        return this.result_select(evt);
      } 
      break;
    case 27:
      if (this.results_showing) this.results_hide();
      return true;
    case 9:
    case 38:
    case 40:
    case 16:
    case 91:
    case 17:
      break;
    default:
      return this.results_search();
  }
};

Answer 5

I know this not the answer, but, an alternate solution.

I was searching for the on-the-fly adding part and found that http://ivaynberg.github.com/select2/#tags provides the same thing as chosen + other stuffs like "Tagging".

Answer 6

You could just attach an event to the input text box to listen for a particular character code. After that add the option and trigger the update on the dropdown.

 var dropDown = $('select.chosen');
 dropDown.parent().find('.chzn-container .chzn-search input[type=text]').keydown( function (evt) {
           var stroke, _ref, target, list;
           // get keycode
           stroke = (_ref = evt.which) != null ? _ref : evt.keyCode;
           target = $(evt.target);               
           // get the list of current options
           list = target.parents('.chzn-container').find('.chzn-choices li.search-choice > span').map(function () { return $(this).text(); }).get();
           if (stroke === 9 || stroke === 13) {
              var value = $.trim(target.val());
              // if the option does not exists
              if ($.inArray(value,list) < 0) {
                 var option = $('<option>');
                 option.text(value).val(value).appendTo(dropDown);
                 option.attr('selected','selected');
                 // add the option and set as selected
              }
              // trigger the update event
              dropDown.trigger("liszt:updated");
              return true;
           }
        });