HTML form readonly SELECT tag/input

Question

According to HTML specs, the select tag in HTML doesn't have a readonly attribute, only a disabled attribute. So if you want to keep the user from changing the dropdown, you have to use disabled.

The only problem is that disabled HTML form inputs don't get included in the POST / GET data.

What's the best way to emulate the readonly attribute for a select tag, and still get the POST data?

Answer 1

Simple CSS solution:

select[readonly]{
    background: #eee;
    cursor:no-drop;
}

select[readonly] option{
    display:none;
}

This results in Select to be gray with nice "disable" cursor on hover
and on select the list of options is "empty" so you can not change its value.

Answer 2

We could also use this

Disable all except the selected option:

<select>
    <option disabled>1</option>
    <option selected>2</option>
    <option disabled>3</option>
</select>

This way the dropdown still works (and submits its value) but the user can not select another value.

Demo

Answer 3

Here's an attempt to use a custom jQuery function to achieve the functionality (as mentioned here):

$(function(){

 $.prototype.toggleDisable = function(flag) {
    // prepare some values
    var selectId = $(this).attr('id');
    var hiddenId = selectId + 'hidden';
    if (flag) {
      // disable the select - however this will not submit the value of the select
      // a new hidden form element will be created below to compensate for the 
      // non-submitted select value 
      $(this).attr('disabled', true);

      // gather attributes
      var selectVal = $(this).val();
      var selectName = $(this).attr('name');

      // creates a hidden form element to submit the value of the disabled select
      $(this).parents('form').append($('<input></input>').
        attr('type', 'hidden').
        attr('id', hiddenId).
        attr('name', selectName).
        val(selectVal) );
    } else {
      // remove the newly-created hidden form element
      $(this).parents('form').remove(hiddenId);
      // enable back the element
      $(this).removeAttr('disabled');
    }
  }

  // Usage
  // $('#some_select_element').toggleDisable(true);
  // $('#some_select_element').toggleDisable(false);

});

Answer 4

One simple server-side approach is to remove all the options except the one that you want to be selected. Thus, in Zend Framework 1.12, if $element is a Zend_Form_Element_Select:

 $value =  $element->getValue();
 $options = $element->getAttrib('options');
 $sole_option = array($value => $options[$value]);
 $element->setAttrib('options', $sole_option);

Answer 5

If you are using jquery validate, you can do the following below, I used the disabled attribute without a problem:

$(function(){
    $('#myform').validate({
        submitHandler:function(form){
            $('select').removeAttr('disabled');
            form.submit();
        }
    });
});

Answer 6

You can re-enable the select object on submit.

EDIT: i.e., normally disabling the select tag (with the disabled attribute) and then re-enabling it automatically just before submiting the form:

Example with jQuery:

• To disable it:

  $('#yourSelect').prop('disabled', true);
  

• To re-enable it before submission so that GET / POST data is included:

  $('#yourForm').on('submit', function() {
      $('#yourSelect').prop('disabled', false);
  });
  

In addition, you could re-enable every disabled input or select:

$('#yourForm').on('submit', function() {
    $('input, select').prop('disabled', false);
});