View Source LiveSelect (LiveSelect v0.3.0)

The LiveSelect field is rendered by calling the live_select/3 function and passing it a form and the name of the field. LiveSelect creates a text input field in which the user can type text, and hidden input field(s) that will contain the value of the selected option(s). As the input text changes, LiveSelect will render a dropdown below the text input containing the matching options, which the user can then select.

Selection can happen either using the keyboard, by navigating the options with the arrow keys and then pressing enter, or by clicking an option with the mouse.

Whenever an option is selected, LiveSelect will trigger a standard phx-change event in the form. See the "Examples" section below for details on how to handle the event.

After an option has been selected, the selection can be undone by clicking on the text field. In tags mode, single tags can be removed by clicking on them.

single-mode

Single mode

demo

tags-mode

Tags mode

demo

reacting-to-user-s-input

Reacting to user's input

Whenever the user types something in the text input, LiveSelect sends a LiveSelect.ChangeMsg.t/0 message to your LiveView. The message has a text property containing the current text entered by the user, and a field property with the name of the LiveSelect field. The LiveView's job is to handle_info/2 the message and then call update_options/2 to update the dropdown's content with the new set of selectable options. See the "Examples" section below for details.

multiple-selection-with-tags-mode

Multiple selection with tags mode

When :tags mode is enabled LiveSelect allows the user to select multiple entries. The entries will be visible above the text input field as removable tags.

The selected entries will be passed to your live view's change and submit events as a list of entries, just like an HTML <select> element with multiple attribute would do.

examples

Examples

These examples describe all the moving parts in detail. You can see these examples in action, see which messages and events are being sent, and play around with the configuration easily with the showcase app.

single-mode-1

Single mode

The user can search for cities. The LiveSelect main form input is called city_search. When a city is selected, the coordinates of that city will be the value of the form input. The name of the selected city is available in the text input field named city_search_text_input.

Template:

<.form for={:my_form} :let={f} phx-change="change">
    <%= live_select f, :city_search %> 
</.form>

LiveView:

import LiveSelect

@impl true
def handle_info(%LiveSelect.ChangeMsg{} = change_msg, socket) do 
  cities = City.search(change_msg.text)
  # cities could be:
  # [ {"city name 1", [lat_1, long_1]}, {"city name 2", [lat_2, long_2]}, ... ]
  #
  # but it could also be (no coordinates in this case):
  # [ "city name 1", "city name 2", ... ]
  #
  # or:
  # [ [label: "city name 1", value: [lat_1, long_1]], [label: "city name 2", value: [lat_2, long_2]], ... ] 
  #
  # or even:
  # ["city name 1": [lat_1, long_1], "city name 2": [lat_2, long_2]]

  update_options(change_msg, cities)
  
  {:noreply, socket}
end

@impl true
def handle_event(
      "change",
      %{"my_form" => %{"city_search_text_input" => city_name, "city_search" => city_coords}},
      socket
    ) do
  IO.puts("You selected city #{city_name} located at: #{city_coords}")

  {:noreply, socket}
end  

tags-mode-1

Tags mode

Let's say you want to build on the previous example and allow the user to select multiple cities and not only one. You can use :tags mode for it:

Template:

<.form for={:my_form} :let={f} phx-change="change">
    <%= live_select f, :city_search, mode: :tags %> 
</.form>

LiveView:

@impl true
def handle_event(
      "change",
      %{"my_form" => %{"city_search" => list_of_coords}},
      socket
    ) do
  # list_of_coords will contain the list of the coordinates of the selected cities, for example:
  # ["[-46.565,-23.69389]", "[-48.27722,-18.91861]"]    

  IO.puts("You selected cities located at: #{list_of_coords}")

  {:noreply, socket}
end  

multiple-liveselect-inputs-in-the-same-liveview

Multiple LiveSelect inputs in the same LiveView

If you have multiple LiveSelect inputs in the same LiveView, you can distinguish them based on the field. For example:

Template:

<.form for={:my_form} :let={f} phx-change="change">
    <%= live_select f, :city_search %> 
    <%= live_select f, :album_search %>
</.form>

LiveView:

@impl true
def handle_info(%LiveSelect.ChangeMsg{} = change_msg, socket) do
  options =
    case change_msg.field do
      :city_search -> City.search(change_msg.text)
      :album_search -> Album.search(change_msg.text)
    end

  update_options(change_msg, options)

  {:noreply, socket}
end

Link to this section Summary

Functions

Renders a LiveSelect input in a form with a given field name.

Updates a LiveSelect component with new options. change_msg must be the LiveSelect.ChangeMsg.t/0 originally sent by the LiveSelect, and options is the new list of options that will be used to fill the dropdown.

Link to this section Functions

Link to this function

live_select(form, field, opts \\ [])

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Renders a LiveSelect input in a form with a given field name.

LiveSelect renders two inputs: a hidden input (of type either text or select, depending on the specified mode) named field that holds the value of the selected option(s), and a visible text input field named #{field}_text_input that contains the text entered by the user.

Opts:

  • mode - either :single (for single selection, the default), or :tags (for multiple selection using tags)
  • default_value - default value to send to the server if nothing is selected. Only used in :single mode, defaults to an empty string
  • disabled - set this to a truthy value to disable the input field
  • placeholder - placeholder text for the input field
  • debounce - number of milliseconds to wait after the last keystroke before sending a LiveSelect.ChangeMsg.t/0 message. Defaults to 100ms
  • update_min_len - the minimum length of text in the text input field that will trigger an update of the dropdown. It has to be a positive integer. Defaults to 3
  • style - one of :tailwind (the default), :daisyui or :none. See the Styling section for details
  • active_option_class, container_class, container_extra_class, dropdown_class, dropdown_extra_class, option_class, option_extra_class, text_input_class, text_input_extra_class, text_input_selected_class,selected_option_class, tag_class, tag_extra_class, tags_container_class, tags_container_extra_class - see the Styling section for details
Link to this function

update_options(change_msg, options)

View Source

Updates a LiveSelect component with new options. change_msg must be the LiveSelect.ChangeMsg.t/0 originally sent by the LiveSelect, and options is the new list of options that will be used to fill the dropdown.

Each option will be assigned a label, which will be shown in the dropdown, and a value, which will be the value of the LiveSelect input when the option is selected.

options can be any enumerable of the following elements:

  • atoms, strings or numbers: In this case, each element will be both label and value for the option
  • tuples: {label, value} corresponding to label and value for the option
  • maps: %{label: label, value: value} or %{value: value}
  • keywords: [label: label, value: value] or [value: value]

In the case of maps and keywords, if only value is specified, it will be used as both value and label for the option.

Because you can pass a list of tuples, you can use maps and keyword lists to pass the list of options, for example:

%{Red: 1, Yellow: 2, Green: 3}

Will result in 3 options with labels :Red, :Yellow, :Green and values 1, 2, and 3.

Note that the option values, if they are not strings, will be JSON-encoded. Your LiveView will receive this JSON-encoded version in the phx-change and phx-submit events.

alternative-tag-labels

Alternative tag labels

Sometimes, in :tags mode, you might want to use alternative labels for the tags. For example, you might want the labels in the tags to be shorter in order to save space. You can do this by specifying an additional tag_label key when passing options as map or keywords. For example, passing these options:

[%{label: "New York", tag_label: "NY"}, %{label: "Barcelona", tag_label: "BCN"}]  

will result in "New York" and "Barcelona" to be used for the options in the dropdown, while "NY" and "BCN" will be used for the tags.