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Re: Selects with drop downs

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mar 14, 2018 1:23PM

A lot of people don't know this, but HTML5 actually has simulated combox code.
That is the list attribute combined with the <datalist> element.
<label for="search">Search</label>
<input id="search" type="text" list="suggestions">
<datalist id="suggestions">
<option value="suggestion 1">
<option value="suggestion 2">
..
</datalist>

The <datalist> elemet should hold all the possible options, they can
be loaded from a JSon file.
When user starts typing into the search input the browser
automatically displays matching suggestions from the datalist (it
shows the value of the matching option elements).
In Firefox at least you can use arrow keys to navigate into and
through the list, enter to select an option and close it, and escape
to dismiss it without selecting.
There are support and implementation differences between browsers
(Firefox matches the string from the beginning, Chrome only matches
for a substring, IE11 doesn't do anything at all).

For instance, if you type "ppl" into the field and "apples" was one of
the options, Chrome would display it as a suggestion but Firefox would
not.

If we can file bugs and get the browser vendors committed this is
close to being an accessible no-JavaScript-needed solution.
I think this and accessibility support of the <dialog> element are the
biggest advances that current HTML5 has to offer, the amount of ARIA
and JavaScript and focus management that is needed to get those right
is beyond most ordinary developers, and I don't blame them.
But if they could do it with HTML, it would be amazing.

I don't know why this isn't gaining more traction, most web developers
I talk to have never heard of this, even if it is in the HTML5 spec.



On 3/14/18, Steve Green < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hi Bryan,
>
> I will reply off-list. At this stage all I really want is a replacement for
> a native combobox, so I have only been testing the Country combobox at
> http://whatsock.com/tsg/Coding%20Arena/ARIA%20Comboboxes/ARIA%20Comboboxes%20(Native%20Inputs,%20Multiselect%20Editable%20with%20Substring%20Match)/demo.htm.
> All the other whizzy features such as autocomplete can wait until we get the
> basic widget working.
>
> Steve
>
>