since 6.0.1

CE
PE
EE

Employment/Purpose

A component similar to Combobox but handles the multi-selection and the select order.

Example

Typical Usage

  • creatable attribute denotes whether or not to display createMessage when a user inputs a value that is non-existing in the model, and sends it back to the server along with an onSearch event when user clicks the ENTER key or separator.
  • emptyMessage will be displayed as a placeholder if nothing is selected or focused.
  • noResultText will be displayed if nothing matches the input value and it cannot be created either; syntax “{0}” will be replaced with the input value at client side.
  • createMessage will be displayed in popup if nothing matches the input value but can be created as new label; syntax “{0}” will be replaced with the input value at the client-side.

When no item is selected or focused, emptyMessage is visible.

When there is no data to be shown in the model and data 0 already selected, noResultText appears.

When there is no item in the model but it is creatable, createMessage appears.

    <zscript>
        ListModelList model = new ListModelList(Locale.getAvailableLocales());
    </zscript>
    <chosenbox width="400px"
               model="${model}" creatable="true"
               emptyMessage=" Please select some items."
               noResultsText=" No such item - {0} - and it is already in the model."
               createMessage=" No such item -{0} - but it is not in model either, you can try to create it.">
        <attribute name="onSearch">
            Object obj = event.getValue();
            ((ListModelList)model).add(obj);
            self.addItemToSelection(obj);
        </attribute>
    </chosenbox>

Rendering All

Here, all the content will be sent to and processed at the client side. The rendering process is pretty fast with a few items but may cause performance issue when the model exceeds 40,000 items and rendering them all at once.

    <zscript>
        ListModelList model = new ListModelList(Locale.getAvailableLocales());
    </zscript>
    <chosenbox width="400px" model="${model}"/>

Lazy Rendering

With ListSubModel, Chosenbox doesn’t render any DOM elements in the drop-down list at first. Until a user enters a character, it retrieves ‘matched’ items from the server-side and renders them in the drop-down list. This might produce some delay at the client side because of server processing time and network latency.

See also: Combobox#Autocomplete_by_ListSubModel

    <zscript><![CDATA[
        ListModelList model = new ListModelList(Locale.getAvailableLocales());
        ListSubModel subModel = ListModels.toListSubModel(model);
    ]]></zscript>
    <chosenbox width="400px" model="${subModel}"/>

Custom Item Rendering

Since this component has no child component like Listbox, if you want to render its items differently, there are 2 ways:

Change text

If you just want to change the text e.g. enclosing it with brackets, just put 

      <cascader>  
              <template name="model">[${each}]</template>  
      </cascader>
  • The template only allows text that can be converted into a ZK Label.
  • could be <cascader>, <chosenbox>, <selectbox>, <searchbox>

Change HTML Structure

If you want to make more changes e.g. adding tooltips by setting title attributes, you need to create your own ItemRenderer. See zk_dev_ref/mvc/View/Renderer/Item_Renderer.

Keyboard Navigation Chosenbox

  • Press UP and DOWN to move the focus up and down by one option.
  • Press LEFT and RIGHT to move focus between selected item(s) and the input field.
  • Press ESC to clear input and close drop-down list.
  • Press DELETE to delete the focused item and move focus to next item if any or input field.
  • Press BACKSPACE to delete the focused item and move focus to previous item if any or input field.
  • Press ENTER or specified separator to select the focused option.

Attributes

creatable

Default: false

specify whether to send an event to a server when user inputs a non-existing value by clicking ENTER or separator.

createMessage

displayed a popup if nothing matches the input value and creatable is true; syntax “{0}” will be replaced with the input value at the client side

disabled

Default: false

specify whether or not it is disabled.

emptyMessage

displayed as placeholder in input if nothing is selected or focused

model

specify the ListModel of this chosenbox

If you set ListModelList to the model of chosenbox, all the content will be sent to and processed at the client-side, The rendering process is pretty fast with a few items but may cause performance issue when the model exceeds 40,000 items and rendering them all at once

If you set ListSubModel to the chosenbox model, the content of the drop-down list will not be rendered to the client-side,and will remain blank until user enters an input. The server will then provide a ‘matched’ content for the input. This will cause some delay at the client side because of server processing time and network transfer time. See Lazy Rendering

name

specify the name of the input element of this component

noResultsText

displayed a popup window if nothing matches the input value and creatable is false; syntax “{0}” will be replaced with the input value at client-side

open

Default: false

specify whether or not to open the drop-down list.

tabindex

Default: 0

specify the tab order of the input node of this component.

separator

the separate characters will work as ‘Enter’ key when clicked on; it will not be considered as an input value. Upon releasing the key, it will an send onSearch or onSelect event depending on the situation. Supports: 0-9, A-Z (case insensitive), and ,.;'[]/\-=

Supported Events

Name Event Type
onSelect Event: org.zkoss.zk.ui.event.SelectEvent Represents an event caused by user’s the selection changed at the client.
onOpen Event: org.zkoss.zk.ui.event.OpenEvent Represents an event that indicates an open state that is changed at the client.
onSearch Event: org.zkoss.zk.ui.event.InputEvent Represents an event that indicates users inputting an non-existing value by clicking ENTER or separator.
onSearching Event: org.zkoss.zk.ui.event.InputEvent Represents an event sent back to the server caused by user’s input text.
onItemClick Event: org.zkoss.zk.ui.event.Event Represents an event sent back to the server caused by clicking a selected tag.
  • onItemClick : since 8.0.2

Also inherit Supported Events from HtmlBasedComponent.

Supported Molds

  • The default mold

Supported Children

None

Use Cases

Version Description Example Location
6.0.1+ Creatable Chosenbox Chosenbox – A beautiful and powerful multiple combobox

Version History

Version Date Content
6.0.1 April 3, 2012 Add the new Chosenbox component
8.0.2 May 24, 2016 Add the new Event - onItemClick