GS Chained Custom Selects

Introduction

In the world of web development, customization and flexibility are crucial aspects of building robust and user-friendly applications. When it comes to working with form fields, particularly in complex systems with many options to choose from, selecting the right combination of values can be a daunting task for users. This is where the GS Chained Custom Selects plugin comes into play. In this tutorial, we'll take you through a step-by-step guide on how to use this powerful plugin to create custom select boxes that chain related options.

What are GS Chained Custom Selects?

GS Chained Custom Selects is a popular JavaScript plugin that allows you to create custom select boxes that are linked together, creating a chain of related options. This plugin is ideal for scenarios where you need to limit the options in a select box based on the value selected in another select box. For instance, if you're building an application that requires users to select a country and then a city, you can use GS Chained Custom Selects to limit the city options to those that are associated with the selected country.

Tutorial: Using GS Chained Custom Selects

Step 1: Adding the Plugin

To start using GS Chained Custom Selects, you'll need to add the plugin's CSS and JavaScript files to your project. You can download the plugin from the official GitHub repository and add the files to your project's folder.

Step 2: Preparing the Data

Before you can start building your custom select boxes, you'll need to prepare the data that will be used to populate the options. This data should be in a format that the plugin can understand, such as a JSON object with key-value pairs.

Here's an example of what the data might look like:

const data = [
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Country 1",
    "cities": ["City 1.1", "City 1.2", "City 1.3"]
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Country 2",
    "cities": ["City 2.1", "City 2.2"]
  },
  //... more data
];

In this example, each object in the data array represents a country, and the "cities" property is an array of city names associated with that country.

Step 3: Creating the Select Boxes

Once you have your data prepared, you can create the select boxes using HTML and JavaScript. For each select box, you'll need to:

1. Create an HTML select element and give it an ID.
2. Use JavaScript to populate the options in the select box using the plugin.

Here's an example of what the HTML might look like:

<select id="country-select">
  <option value="">Select a country</option>
</select>

<select id="city-select">
  <option value="">Select a city</option>
</select>

And here's an example of what the JavaScript code might look like:

const countrySelect = document.getElementById('country-select');
const citySelect = document.getElementById('city-select');

// Populating the country options
const countryOptions = [];
data.forEach((country) => {
  countryOptions.push({
    text: country.name,
    value: country.id,
  });
});
countrySelect.innerHTML = '';
countrySelect.options.length = 0;
for (const option of countryOptions) {
  const opt = document.createElement('option');
  opt.text = option.text;
  opt.value = option.value;
  countrySelect.options.add(opt);
}

// Creating the chained city options
countrySelect.addEventListener('change', (event) => {
  const selectedCountryId = event.target.value;
  const cityOptions = [];
  data.forEach((country) => {
    if (country.id === selectedCountryId) {
      cityOptions = country.cities;
    }
  });
  citySelect.innerHTML = '';
  citySelect.options.length = 0;
  for (const city of cityOptions) {
    const opt = document.createElement('option');
    opt.text = city;
    opt.value = city;
    citySelect.options.add(opt);
  }
});

In this example, we're creating two select boxes, one for countries and one for cities. We're then populating the country options using the plugin, and creating a chain of related city options based on the selected country.

Step 4: Initializing the Plugin

To activate the plugin, you'll need to call the GSChainedCustomSelects function and pass in the select box elements as arguments. Here's an example of how to do this:

const gsChainedCustomSelects = require('gs-chained-custom-selects');

gsChainedCustomSelects({
  selectBoxes: [countrySelect, citySelect],
});

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we've covered the basics of using GS Chained Custom Selects to create custom select boxes that chain related options. By following these steps, you can create powerful and user-friendly form fields that simplify complex data selection processes. Remember to explore the plugin's documentation and options to learn more about its features and customization possibilities. Happy coding!