Make ul list work like select input

Question

I want to be able to use a ul list as an select form element, for styling reasons.

I'm able to populate an hidden input with my code (not included in this jsfiddle), and so far so good.But now I'm trying to let my ul behave like the select input when the keyboard is pressed, or the mouse is used.

In my previous question i had some problems with keyboard controls. They are now fixed. See: Autoscroll on keyboard arrow up/down

The problem that remains is that the mouse is not ignored when the keyboard buttons are pressed. This is causing the "hover effect" to listen to the keyboard input first, but than immediately going to the mouse and select this li item as being selected.

This can be seen in my jsfiddle example: http://jsfiddle.net/JVDXT/3/

My javascript code:

// scrollTo plugin 
  $.fn.scrollTo = function( target, options, callback ){
  if(typeof options == 'function' && arguments.length == 2){ callback = options; options = target; }
  var settings = $.extend({
    scrollTarget  : target,
    offsetTop     : 100,
    duration      : 0,
    easing        : 'linear'
  }, options);
  return this.each(function(){
    var scrollPane = $(this);
    var scrollTarget = (typeof settings.scrollTarget == "number") ? settings.scrollTarget : $(settings.scrollTarget);
    var scrollY = (typeof scrollTarget == "number") ? scrollTarget : scrollTarget.offset().top + scrollPane.scrollTop() - parseInt(settings.offsetTop);
    scrollPane.animate({scrollTop : scrollY }, parseInt(settings.duration), settings.easing, function(){
      if (typeof callback == 'function') { callback.call(this); }
    });
  });
}


//My code
//The function that is listing the the mouse
jQuery(".btn-group .dropdown-menu li").mouseover(function() {
        console.log('mousie')
        jQuery(".btn-group .dropdown-menu li").removeClass('selected');
        jQuery(this).addClass('selected');
})  

//What to do when the keyboard is pressed
jQuery(".btn-group").keydown(function(e) {
    if (e.keyCode == 38) { // up
        console.log('keyup pressed');
        var selected = jQuery('.selected');
        jQuery(".btn-group .dropdown-menu li").removeClass('selected');
        if (selected.prev().length == 0) {
            selected.siblings().last().addClass('selected');
        } else {
            selected.prev().addClass('selected');
            jQuery('.btn-group .dropdown-menu').scrollTo('.selected');
        }
    }
    if (e.keyCode == 40) { // down
        console.log('keydown');
        var selected = jQuery('.selected');
        jQuery(".btn-group .dropdown-menu li").removeClass('selected');
        if (selected.next().length == 0) {
            selected.siblings().first().addClass('selected');
        } else {
            selected.next().addClass('selected');
            jQuery('.btn-group .dropdown-menu').scrollTo('.selected');
        }
    }
});

So could anyone teach me how to igonore the mouse when the keyboard buttons are pressed, but listing to the mouse when it's touched again by the user. Like the default select input form field.

Update

Here's a new jsfiddle.

Answer 1

Check this out:

http://jsfiddle.net/coma/9KvhL/25/

(function($, undefined) {

    $.fn.dropdown = function() {

        var widget = $(this);
        var label = widget.find('span.valueOfButton');
        var list = widget.children('ul');
        var selected;
        var highlighted;

        var select = function(i) {

            selected = $(i);
            label.text(selected.text());

        };

        var highlight = function(i) {

            highlighted = $(i);

            highlighted
            .addClass('selected')
            .siblings('.selected')
            .removeClass('selected');
        };

        var scroll = function(event) {

            list.scrollTo('.selected');

        };

        var hover = function(event) {

            highlight(this);

        };

        var rebind = function(event) {

            bind();

        };

        var bind = function() {

            list.on('mouseover', 'li', hover);
            widget.off('mousemove', rebind);

        };

        var unbind = function() {

            list.off('mouseover', 'li', hover);
            widget.on('mousemove', rebind);

        };

        list.on('click', 'li', function(event) {

            select(this);

        });

        widget.keydown(function(event) {

            unbind();

            switch(event.keyCode) {

                case 38:
                    highlight((highlighted && highlighted.prev().length > 0) ? highlighted.prev() : list.children().last());

                    scroll();
                    break;

                case 40:
                    highlight((highlighted && highlighted.next().length > 0) ? highlighted.next() : list.children().first());

                    scroll();
                    break;

                case 13:
                    if(highlighted) {

                        select(highlighted);

                    }
                    break;

            }

        });

        bind();

    };

    $.fn.scrollTo = function(target, options, callback) {

        if(typeof options === 'function' && arguments.length === 2) {

            callback = options;
            options = target;
        }

        var settings = $.extend({
            scrollTarget  : target,
            offsetTop     : 185,
            duration      : 0,
            easing        : 'linear'
        }, options);

        return this.each(function(i) {

            var scrollPane = $(this);
            var scrollTarget = (typeof settings.scrollTarget === 'number') ? settings.scrollTarget : $(settings.scrollTarget);
            var scrollY = (typeof scrollTarget === 'number') ? scrollTarget : scrollTarget.offset().top + scrollPane.scrollTop() - parseInt(settings.offsetTop, 10);

            scrollPane.animate({scrollTop: scrollY}, parseInt(settings.duration, 10), settings.easing, function() {

                if (typeof callback === 'function') {

                    callback.call(this);
                }

            });

        });

    };

})(jQuery);

$('div.btn-group').dropdown();

The key is to unbind the mouseover and rebind when mouse moves.

I refactored it a little by using a closure function, adding the logic to a jQuery method called dropdown so you can reuse it, using switch instead of a bunch of if's and more things.

Well, there are bazillions of plugins to transform a select to a list:

http://ivaynberg.github.io/select2/

http://harvesthq.github.io/chosen/

http://meetselva.github.io/combobox/

and I have mine too! (ready for touch devices using the same trick as http://uniformjs.com)

https://github.com/coma/jquery.select

But this question is about taking that HTML and make it behave like a select avoiding the hover issue right?