The arc90 lab is the playground of arc90 - a New York-based technology and strategic consulting firm. The lab is a place for us to share our ideas, tools and the occasional experiment in web technology. All ideas, experiments and tools are licensed under Creative Commons.

licensed under creative commons

This site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Tools

jQuery MultiSelect

Ever want to put a whole bunch of Select drop downs that can have multiple selections into a tight area, only to have to struggle with layout issues?  Or have to put a layered div over over a Select and realize that Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and lower will still display the Select?  Or have you just wanted a nice a clean way to select multiple options that don't require Shift or Control clicking?

What is this?

jQuery MultiSelect leverages the power of jQuery, providing a clean way to display a drop down and allow multiple options to be selected with just the mouse and without taking up more room that you need.

With just a single line of code, jQuery MultiSelect styles up any select with a new and simple drop down. Your page will look clean and improved and your markup barely changes. It's a win-win-win.

How Do I Use It?

To use jQuery MultiSelect on your site or blog, just follow these simple steps:

Download The Code

Click on the icon below to download the source code:

Download

The file, jquery_multiselect.zip, contains the script, an example page, the jQuery library, and a couple of images. Once downloaded, unzip and upload the script to a relevant location on your hosted site.

Link To The Javascript

Add a link to the javascript file in the page(s) you'd like jQuery MultiSelect implemented. Remember to adjust the path to properly point to the location of the javascript file:

Choosing which selects to stylize

Style your selects normally. Here's an example:

Add a small amount of javascript to turn a select into a jQuery MultiSelect. An example for styling the above select (with an id of "lang") is provided below:

jQuery MultiSelect currently supports the following configuration arguments:

  • select_all_min - The minimum number of elements the select must have before the 'Select All' option is provided.
  • no_selection - The message to display when no items in the select are toggled.
  • selected_text - The message appended to the current number of options selected.

If no arguments are passed to jQuery MultiSelect, the default values will be used:

  • select_all_min - 6
  • no_selection - No Selection
  • selected_text - Options Selected

Examples

You can see jQuery MultiSelect in action by clicking here.

Supported Browsers

Currently, the jQuery MultiSelect script has been tested and confirmed on the following browsers:

  • Internet Explorer 6.0+
  • Mozilla Firefox 2.0+
  • Apple Safari 2.0+
  • Opera Version 9.0

Licensing

This arc90 tool is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

Discuss jQuery MultiSelect

You can send feedback on jQuery MultiSelect at the arc90 blog.

Digg Del.icio.us