JackCA / emberx-select

Select component for Ember based on the native html select element.

emberx-select

A Select component based on the native html select.

Why a select component? Because Ember.Select is hard to use, and really, all you want to do is just use a <select> tag dammit. The only difference is that you want value of the options to be any object and not just a string.

Installation

ember install emberx-select

By allowing arbitrary html to appear in the template of the select element, you can use it just like you would normally. This means things like having <optgroup> tags inside your select, or even plain old <option> elements to represent things like empty values.

XSelect thinly wraps a native <select> element so that it can be object and binding aware. It is used in conjuction with the x-option component to construct select boxes. E.g.

{{#x-select value=bob action="selectPerson"}}
  {{#x-option value=fred}}Fred Flintstone{{/x-option}}
  {{#x-option value=bob}}Bob Newhart{{/x-option}}
{{/x-select}}

the options are always up to date, so that when the object bound to value changes, the corresponding option becomes selected.

Whenever the select tag receives a change event, it will fire action.

If you're just changing a model's property, you don't need action. For example, if you have a model with a status field with an integer, you can do this:

{{#x-select value=model.status }}
  {{#x-option value=1}}Active{{/x-option}}
  {{#x-option value=2}}Inactive{{/x-option}}
{{/x-select}}

Multiselect

As of version 1.1.0, emberx-select supports the multiple option. This means you can pass an array as its value, and it will set its selections directly on that array.

{{#x-select value=selections multiple=true action="selectionsChanged"}}
 {{#x-option value=fred}}Fred Flintstone{{/x-option}}
 {{#x-option value=bob}}Bob Newhart{{/x-option}}
 {{#x-option value=andrew}}Andrew WK{{/x-option}}
{{/x-select}}

The selections array will be initialized to an empty array if not present.

Action and Action Arguments

The action that is dispatched by x-select whenever the selected value or values change has a function signature of:

/**
* @param value {Object} the value selected by the user.
* @param component {Ember.Component} the x-select component itself
*/
function (value, component) {
  // action body...
}

Most of the time all you need is the value that has been selected, but sometimes your action requires more context than just that. In those cases, you can associate arbitrary attributes with the component itself and use them later inside your action handler. For example:

{{#x-select action="didMakeSelection" default=anything}}
  <option>Nothing</option>
  {{#x-option value=something}}Something{{/x-option}}
{{/x-select}}

then, inside your action handler:

export default Ember.Route.extend({
  actions: {
    didMakeSelection: function(selection, component) {
      if (selection) {
        this.set('selection', selection)
      } else {
        this.set('selection', component.get('default'))
      }
    }
  }
});

Test Helpers

Since emberx-select uses internal identifiers as the value attribute, it doesn't integrate with the fillIn test helper. But don't fret, we've automatically injected the test helper into your app.

Using the test helper

As of version 1.1.3 we support both multiselects and regular selects. To use, you need to specify the class on the select as the first argument and the rest of the arguments are the options you'd like to select. For example:

//... Single select
  select('.my-drop-down', 'My Option');
//...

Multiselect

//... Multiselect
  select('.my-drop-down', 'My Option', 'My Option Two', 'My Option Three');
//...

Why am I getting a JSHint error?

You need to run the generator: ember g emberx-select

Why am I getting a "Can't find variable: select" error?

You need to either run the generator (ember g emberx-select) or import the test helper into your test-helper.js file:

import registerSelectHelper from './helpers/register-select-helper';
registerSelectHelper();

EmberX

emberx-select is part of the "missing components of ember" collectively known as emberx:

• emberx-select
• emberx-slider
• emberx-file-input

Other Resources

• EmberScreencasts video on creating select boxes with vanilla Ember and emberx-select

Running Tests

• ember test
• ember test --server