Using Select Lists to Present Options

Select lists are UI components that present collapsible groups of options. A select list initially shows a single default option. When clicked, all the options are displayed. When an option is selected, it collapses to display only the newly selected option. It’s handy for getting user input while conserving UI real estate.

This tutorial shows you how to implement select lists using the AlloyUI taglib tags aui:select and aui:option. You’ll learn how to add a select list to your UI and how to retrieve the option a user selects.

Adding a Select List

Here’s how to implement select lists in a portlet’s View using aui:select and aui:option tags in a JSP file.

  1. Create or edit a JSP file where you want to add a select list.

  2. Reference the AlloyUI taglib aui:

    <%@ taglib prefix="aui" uri="http://alloy.liferay.com/tld/aui" %>
    
  3. Add an aui:select element and name it.

    <aui:select name="select-example">
    
    </aui:select>
    

    The aui:select tag’s reference documentation describes all its attributes.

  4. For each option listed in the select, insert an aui:option element between the starting and ending aui:select tags. Here’s an example select list with three options:

    <aui:select name="select-example">
        <aui:option value="Option 1">Option 1</aui:option>
        <aui:option value="Option 2">Option 2</aui:option>
        <aui:option value="Option 3">Option 3</aui:option>
    </aui:select>
    

    The aui:option tag’s reference documentation describes all its attributes.

There you have it! Now you know how to create a select list and populate it with options using aui taglib tags. It’s important to note, however, this example skims only the surface of the aui:select and aui:option tag capabilities. So far, you’ve seen nothing that regular HTML can’t do. There is more, however: the aui:select tag’s configurable attributes give you lots of flexibility to customize select lists. So, make sure to check out its reference documentation.

Adding the select list to your UI is first part of creating a fully functional select list. Next, you’ll learn how to implement retrieval of the selected options.

Getting the Selected Option

There are a couple of ways to retrieve a select list’s selected option. Both are viable and achieve the same goal. One way does so within an aui:script element. The other way does so using JavaScript inside the portlet’s main.js file. Each approach has its benefits: the aui:script tag gives you access to the server side state and its utilities and methods; main.js gives you cacheability, a separation of concerns with your code, and is shareable across all portlets. Generally, you should write as much of your JavaScript as possible inside main.js so that the code can be cached. If, however, you need an initialization point for your code or have to pass data from the server, you should write your JavaScript inside the aui:script tags. The sections that follow cover both techniques.

Up to this point, the select list has been shown as a stand-alone component. Since select lists are typically used in forms, this tutorial demonstrates implementing a fully functional select list in a form. Here’s the example form JSP code:

<aui:form>
    <aui:fieldset>
        <aui:select label="Select Option:" id="options" name="selectField1" required="true" showEmptyOption="true">
            <aui:option value="Option 1">Option 1</aui:option>
            <aui:option value="Option 2">Option 2</aui:option>
            <aui:option value="Option 3">Option 3</aui:option>
        </aui:select>
        <aui:button value="Submit" onClick="get()" id="btnSubmit"/>
    </aui:fieldset>
</aui:form>

Next, you’ll see how to retrieve a select list’s selected option by leveraging the AlloyUI modules in an aui:script tag inside a JSP.

Getting the Selected Option Using an AlloyUI Script

This example retrieves the select list’s selected option and displays the option’s value to the user in an alert:

  1. Add an aui:script element in your JSP and set the use attribute to node and event:

    <aui:script use="node, event">
    
    </aui:script>
    

    The node and event packages can be used to retrieve the button node and attach an event to it.

  2. Inside the aui:script element, retrieve the event’s node. In this example, the event is attached to a button that has an ID btnSubmit:

    var btn = A.one('#btnSubmit');
    

    The A.one method retrieves the button with the ID btnSubmit. This method returns the first matching node.

  3. Add a variable to represent the select list node:

    var option = A.one('#<portlet:namespace/>options')
    

    As with the button, the select list can be referenced by its ID. It’s used as part of the argument value passed to the A.one method. Note the portlet:namespace tag is part of the ID. The namespace avoids conflicts with other elements and portlets on the same page. Since a unique namespace is associated with the select list’s ID, the portlet:namespace tag is a required qualifier for retrieving the select list. Namespacing is discussed in greater detail later in this tutorial. You can also read more about it in the tutorial Using Portlet Namespacing.

  4. Below the variables you just declared, attach a function to the node for retrieving the selected option. The example here attaches a click event to the button node assigned to variable btn:

    btn.on('click', function(event){
    
    });
    
  5. Inside the function, retrieve the select list’s selected option by calling the val method. The example here uses the method alert to notify the user about the selected option:

    alert(option.val());
    

    You can use the val method to get and set the value attribute of its node. Since this example calls the val method without parameters, it gets the value of the node. You can, alternatively, use the following code to achieve the same result:

    alert(option.attr('value'));
    

    Note that while the val method can get only the value of the node’s value attribute, the attr method can get the value of any of the node’s attributes. To use the attr method to retrieve a node attribute’s value, you must pass that attribute’s name as the argument to the method. For example, attr('value') retrieves the value of the value attribute. The attr method can also be used to set the value of an attribute. You can do this by passing a second argument, which serves as the attribute’s new value. For example, the following code sets Selector: as the value of the select list’s label attribute:

    option.attr('label', 'Selector:');
    

    If you’re following along with the example in this tutorial, the finished script looks like this:

    <aui:script use="event, node">
    
        var btn = A.one('#btnSubmit');       
        var option = A.one('#<portlet:namespace/>options');
    
        btn.on('click', function(event){
            alert(option.val());
        });
    
    </aui:script>
    
  6. Redeploy your portlet, select an option from the select list, and perform the action that calls your script. For this example, click the Submit button after selecting an option from the select list.

There you go! As you can see, it takes little effort to implement an AlloyUI script to retrieve a select list’s selected option. Next, you’ll learn how to achieve the same results using JavaScript in your portlet’s main.js file.

Getting the Selected Option Using a JavaScript File

You can also use JavaScript in your main.js file to retrieve a select list’s selected option. Because the main.js file is loaded after the JSP, you have to pass the portlet:namespace to the main.js file. The following steps leverage the example form shown at the start of this section to demonstrate how to get a select list’s selected option:

  1. Open the main.js file from your portlet’s docroot/js/ folder.

  2. Add the following code to your main.js file. The init function retrieves the portlet namespace, while the get function retrieves the value of the select list’s selected option:

    AUI().use(
        'aui-base',
        function (A){
            Liferay.namespace('your-portlet-name');
    
            Liferay.yourportletname = {
    
                init: function(config){
                    var instance = this;
                    instance._namespace = config.namespace;
                },
    
                get: function(){
                    var instance = this;
                    var option = A.one('#' + instance._namespace + 'options');
                    alert(option.attr('value'));
                },
    
            };
        }
    );
    

    Make sure to replace your-portlet-name with your portlet’s name and options with your aui:select element’s ID value.

    The init function is attached as a method to Liferay.yourportletname. The namespace is set up to be passed as the argument for the init function’s parameter. The instance._namespace variable is assigned the namespace. The get function uses this variable to add the portlet:namespace to the select list’s ID. Note that the instance variable is declared and set to keyword this.

  3. From within the JSP containing your select list, you must link to the JavaScript in main.js the component that produces the event (e.g., a button).

    The JSP in the example form has the following button:

    <aui:button value="Submit" onClick="get()" id="btnSubmit"/>
    

    Using an AlloyUI script in the select list’s JSP, you can register to receive the event. From within an AlloyUI script, you can initialize the JavaScript you wrote in main.js and make accessible its function that gets the selected option.

    For example, here’s an AlloyUI script that calls the JavaScript from the previous step:

    <aui:script use="aui-base, event, node">
        var btn = A.one('#btnSubmit');
    
        Liferay.yourportletname.init(
            {
                namespace: '<portlet:namespace/>'
            }
        );
    
        get = function(){
            Liferay.yourportletname.get();
        }
    </aui:script>
    

    When setting the aui:script, make sure to set its use attribute to aui-base, event, node. Also make sure to replace yourportletname with your portlet’s name and set btnSubmit to your button’s ID.

    The A.one method uses the button’s ID btnSubmit to retrieve the button. The init function is called inside the script and sets the namespace to <portlet:namespace/>. The get variable is then set to the get method you created in main.js. Make sure to match the name of the function you implemented to handle the select option to the name of the function associated with your button.

  4. Redeploy the portlet, select an option from the select list, and perform the action that calls the method. If you’re following along with this example, the method is called when you click the Submit button.

Congratulations! Now you know how to retrieve the options users choose from your portlet’s select lists. This tutorial’s example demonstrates only getting the option and alerting the user of that option. You can, however, build off of these principles to use the select list’s input in your app’s business logic. To learn how to do this, check out the article Writing Your First Liferay Application in the Learning Path Beginning Liferay Development or dive in to the Learning Path Writing a Data-Driven Application.

Beginning Liferay Development

Writing a Data-Driven Application

User Interfaces with the Liferay UI Taglib

Themes and Layout Templates

Application Display Templates

Customizing Liferay Portal with Hooks

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