jQuery EasyDropDown

A Drop-down Builder for Styleable Inputs and Menus

© Copyright 2013 Patrick Kunka / kunkalabs.com

What Is It?

EasyDropDown is a jQuery plugin that effortlessly turns humble <select> elements …

… into styleable drop-down menus for use in forms or general UI/navigation.

It's like Chosen but with only the essential features:

  • Clean, semantic markup
  • Form & validation compatibilty
  • Full keyboard control with textual search
  • Inner-scroll for long lists
  • Degradation to native UI on touch devices
  • Fully functional IE8+
Fork it on GitHub

or download .ZIP

Latest updates v2.1.4

  • Menu height is now calculated in real time to allow for responsive typography, modals etc.
  • Various bug fixes

Available Ready-made Themes

Default / easydropdown.css

Metro / easydropdown.metro.css

Flat / easydropdown.flat.css

How To Use It

To use, simply include the jquery.easydropdown.min.js script in your page and give your <select> tags the class dropdown:

<select class="dropdown">
	<option value="1">Option 1</option>
	<option value="2">Option 2</option>
	<option value="3">Option 3</option>
	<option value="4">Option 4</option>
</select>

If you are using labels within the <select> element, identify them with the class label: 

<select class="dropdown">
	<option value="" class="label">Month</option>
	<option value="1">January</option>
	<option value="2">February</option>
	<option value="3">March</option>
	...
</select>

To build your dropdown with an arbitrary option pre-selected, simply give it the selected attribute as you normally would:

<select class="dropdown">
	<option value="" class="label">Month</option>
	<option value="1">January</option>
	<option value="2" selected>February</option>
	<option value="3">March</option>
	...
</select>

Similarly, a dropdown may be disabled with the disabled attribute:

<select class="dropdown" disabled>
	<option value="" class="label">Month</option>
	<option value="1">January</option>
	<option value="2">February</option>
	<option value="3">March</option>
	...
</select>

No custom JS required!

How To Style It

Either create your own styles to match your design and branding, or use one of our ready made themes. We recommend starting with the default theme and customizing it.

Each drop-down has the following basic markup structure that you can target with your CSS:

<div class="dropdown">
	<span class="old">
		<select>...</select>
	</span>
	<span class="selected">Option 1</span>
	<span class="carat"></span>
	<div>
		<ul>
			<li>Option 1</li>
			<li>Option 2</li>
			<li>Option 3</li>
			<li>Option 4</li>
		</ul>
	</div>
</div>

The following classes are added/removed dynamically:

  • .focus (container)
    On input focus
  • .open (container)
    On menu open
  • .scrollable (container)
    When in scroll mode (see cutOff)
  • .bottom (container)
    On scroll bottom-out
  • .touch (container)
    When in native touch UI mode (see nativeTouch)
  • .disabled (container)
    When disabled
  • .focus (menu item)
    On hover or keyboard focus
  • .active (menu item)
    Selected menu item

Advanced Usage

Alternatively, by not using the class 'dropdown' you can instantiate your dropdowns manually in your javascript, with custom settings.

$(function(){
	var $selects = $('select');
						
	$selects.easyDropDown({
		cutOff: 10,
		wrapperClass: 'my-dropdown-class',
		onChange: function(selected){
			// do something
		}
	});
});

You may also define your customizable settings directly in your HTML via a JSON Object in the data-settings attribute:

<select class="dropdown" 
	data-settings='{"cutOff":6}'>
	<option value="1">Option 1</option>
	<option value="2">Option 2</option>
	..
</select>

The "onchange" attribute may be applied as normal:

<select class="dropdown" onchange="alert(this.value)">
	<option value="1">Option 1</option>
	<option value="2">Option 2</option>
	..
</select>

Customizable Settings

  • cutOff (integer)
    The maximum number of items to show before scrolling (default false).
  • wrapperClass (string)
    The class of the parent wrapper element, used to target styling (default 'dropdown').
  • onChange (function)
    A custom function to call when an item is selected. Useful for non-form input uses. An object containing the selected item's value and title is passed as an argument.
  • nativeTouch (boolean)
    Fallback to native UI on touch-enabled devices (default true).

Methods

  • .easyDropDown('disable')
    Disable the dropdown.
  • .easyDropDown('enable')
    Enable the dropdown.
  • .easyDropDown('destroy')
    Remove all generated elements and unbind all handlers.
  • .easyDropDown('select', index/value)
    Programmatically select option by index (integer) or value (string).
  • .val()
    Get selected value.