Multiple-select elements are very difficult to use for many reasons. Views2 has some innovative solutions for this, which are similar to those implemented in the Better Select module.

It would be great if someone had time to port either of those implementations to drupal core HEAD / v7-development. This issue is for both usability and forms API.

Comments

alanburke’s picture

alanburke commented
Component: usability » forms system
Issue tags: +Usability, +forms
jstoller’s picture

jstoller
he/him
commented

I completely agree that multi-select boxes are awful, from a user experience perspective. The Better Select approach looks interesting. Personally, I was interested in a two box approach. The left box lists all available selections and the right box lists the ones you've selected. The user moves items from the left to the right box either through drag and drop or by pressing an add button.

Josh The Geek’s picture

Josh The Geek commented
Status: Patch (to be ported) » Active

??? Should be active

Bevan’s picture

Bevan commented
Version: 7.x-dev » 8.x-dev

Yes. And D8 now.

danillonunes’s picture

danillonunes commented

In D7, Options module for Fields API have a widget "checkboxes/radio buttons" for every field when multi select box applies. Also, in Forms API, the field types "checkboxes" and "radios" exists even in D6. So I don't understand the meaning of this issue.

Bevan’s picture

Bevan commented

In Drupal 6, the Forms API allows #type=>select with #multiple=>TRUE. This should be strongly discouraged or disabled as it is not usable—and core should not use it. #type=>checkboxes should be used instead, however #type=>checkboxes does not scale well if the list of #options is long; so some extra work may be necessary here.

We should also encourage major contrib modules to stop using it, especially Views.

I do not know how much of this applies to Drupal 7.

jhedstrom’s picture

jhedstrom
Primary language English
Location Portland, OR
commented
Version: 8.0.x-dev » 8.1.x-dev
Issue summary: View changes
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

This issue summary needs updating if there is anything left to do here.

Version: 8.1.x-dev » 8.2.x-dev

Drupal 8.1.0-beta1 was released on March 2, 2016, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.2.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.2.x-dev » 8.3.x-dev

Drupal 8.2.0-beta1 was released on August 3, 2016, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.3.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.3.x-dev » 8.4.x-dev

Drupal 8.3.0-alpha1 will be released the week of January 30, 2017, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.4.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.4.x-dev » 8.5.x-dev

Drupal 8.4.0-alpha1 will be released the week of July 31, 2017, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.5.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.5.x-dev » 8.6.x-dev

Drupal 8.5.0-alpha1 will be released the week of January 17, 2018, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.6.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.6.x-dev » 8.7.x-dev

Drupal 8.6.0-alpha1 will be released the week of July 16, 2018, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.7.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.7.x-dev » 8.8.x-dev

Drupal 8.7.0-alpha1 will be released the week of March 11, 2019, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.8.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

amanire’s picture

amanire commented

The checkboxes form widget is a decent alternative, but the one tradeoff with it is that it grows too large vertically with more than four or five elements, where multi-select has a limited height. I would think that the simple solution in that case would be to provide an optional max-height on checkboxes.

Version: 8.8.x-dev » 8.9.x-dev

Drupal 8.8.0-alpha1 will be released the week of October 14th, 2019, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.9.x-dev branch. (Any changes to 8.9.x will also be committed to 9.0.x in preparation for Drupal 9’s release, but some changes like significant feature additions will be deferred to 9.1.x.). For more information see the Drupal 8 and 9 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 and 9 release cycles.

Version: 8.9.x-dev » 9.1.x-dev

Drupal 8.9.0-beta1 was released on March 20, 2020. 8.9.x is the final, long-term support (LTS) minor release of Drupal 8, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 9.1.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 and 9 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 and 9 release cycles.

Version: 9.1.x-dev » 9.2.x-dev

Drupal 9.1.0-alpha1 will be released the week of October 19, 2020, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.2.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 9 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 9 release cycle.

Version: 9.2.x-dev » 9.3.x-dev

Drupal 9.2.0-alpha1 will be released the week of May 3, 2021, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.3.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 9.3.x-dev » 9.4.x-dev

Drupal 9.3.0-rc1 was released on November 26, 2021, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.4.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 9.4.x-dev » 9.5.x-dev

Drupal 9.4.0-alpha1 was released on May 6, 2022, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.5.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 9.5.x-dev » 10.1.x-dev

Drupal 9.5.0-beta2 and Drupal 10.0.0-beta2 were released on September 29, 2022, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 10.1.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

smustgrave’s picture

smustgrave commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Closed (outdated)

Closing as outdated as an issue summary update was requested 8 years ago and hasn't been a follow up. If still a valid feature request please reopen or open a new issue with an updated issue summary

Thanks!