HTML Radio Buttons best practices - html

I work on a large Backbone application at work. The interface is essentially a big form. We use the name attribute to map our inputs to our model properties so we can autosave each field on change or enter, letting Backbone do its thing. I just spent two days trying to figure out why one particular section causes the page to reload with a weird URL. The answer is obvious now, but after building a big app over 9 months, you tend to overlook the small things.
Throughout the application we use <input> all over the place without a wrapping <form>. In one case, however, we have a repeating element in the form of a Handlebars template that contains radio buttons with the same name:
<div id="1">
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="yes"> Yes
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="no"> No
<input type="text">
</div>
<div id="2">
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="yes"> Yes
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="no"> No
<input type="text">
</div>
<div id="3">
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="yes"> Yes
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="no"> No
<input type="text">
</div>
The problem with this is that they get grouped together because of they all have the same name attribute. So, instead of getting 3 values (one for each group), we were getting 1 value (for one big group).
Since we know that radio button groups are "scoped" to the containing <form>, we just wrapped it:
<div id="1">
<form>
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="yes"> Yes
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="no"> No
<input type="text">
</form>
</div>
<div id="2">
<form>
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="yes"> Yes
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="no"> No
<input type="text">
</form>
</div>
<div id="3">
<form>
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="yes"> Yes
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="no"> No
<input type="text">
</form>
</div>
This works just fine for the radio buttons, but now that we have a form, hitting enter on the text <input> actually submits the form, instead of autosaving (technically, in addition to autosaving). At the time, this never even occurred to me, since we somehow managed to avoid this everywhere else in the application.
I can think of a few different solutions to this problem: setting a submit handler on the form, setting a submit handler on the text input, leaving the text input outside the form. But these seem like hacks to deal with what I would say is broken behavior. If input elements work outside of forms, then grouping input elements should work outside of forms. And since we're already using the name attribute (which works for everything else), unique names isn't really an option.
So is there a best practice for situations like this? Is there an element other than <form> that will properly scope radio buttons? Am I just going to have to live with <form onsubmit="return false;">?
P.S. We support IE 8+
UPDATE
This is what I ended up with:
<div id="1">
<form onsubmit="return false;">
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="yes"> Yes
<input type="radio" name="choose" value="no"> No
</form>
<input type="text">
</div>

Best thing to do would be to change the names of each group to be unique.
Second best would be to group them by form like you have done, and add the return false.
Third best would be to block form submission using jquery 'preventdefault' (which could work for all forms given a particular id).
Last (and the most ridiculous option) would be to send each group of buttons to it's own small html file and use iframes to display them on the same page.

Related

Why can I check multiple radio buttons?

I have a HTML form with radio buttons and are able to select multiple but why? I can't help myself.
This is my HTML:
<input type="radio" name="nameA" id="nameA" value="nameA">
<label for="nameA">Choice A</label>
<input type="radio" name="nameB" id="nameB" value="nameB">
<label for="nameB">Choice B</label>
For anyone finding this question: Solution is to give them the same NAME
<input type="radio" name="sameName" id="nameA" value="nameA">
<label for="nameA">Choice A</label>
<input type="radio" name="sameName" id="nameB" value="nameB">
<label for="nameB">Choice B</label>
All radio buttons that share the same name and are controls in the same form are part of a group.
Only one radio button in a group can be checked.
You have two radio buttons with different names. This means that you have two radio groups, each containing one radio button.
You need to put them in the same group (by making them share a name) if you only want one of them to be selected.
(They should still have unique ids (so you can give each one a label) and values (which is how you determine which one was checked when the form is submitted to the server)).
<form>
<fieldset>
<legend>Thing that is being chosen</legend>
<input type="radio" name="name" id="nameA" value="nameA">
<label for="nameA">Choice A</label>
<input type="radio" name="name" id="nameB" value="nameB">
<label for="nameB">Choice B</label>
</fieldset>
</form>
Whenever you are creating radio buttons (with the intention of
ensuring users would be able to select only 1 option), please ensure
to have the value of the name attribute the same
Please update your code like this :
<input type="radio" name="sameName" id="nameA" value="nameA">
<label for="nameA">Choice A</label>
<input type="radio" name="sameName" id="nameB" value="nameB">
<label for="nameB">Choice B</label>

Site navigation using radio input

Short:
I would like to use input type radio in form as a site navigation tool without need of clicking on submit button. Is this possible?
Explanation:
I am using jQuery Mobile library for my GUI and I like how the look of radio input is automatically changed - In this look I want to classify people according to their names and to switch between pages in long output.
My current code i like this:
<form action="custmers.php" method="post">
<fieldset data-role="controlgroup" data-mini="true" data-type="horizontal">
<input type="radio" name="nav" id="a" value="customers.php?letter=a">
<label for="a">A</label>
:
:
<input type="radio" name="nav" id="z" value="customers.php?letter=z">
<label for="z">Z</label>
</fieldset>
</form>
But except of highlighting currently clicked option the page doesn't redirect.
This might work (haven't tested it)
Its still early in the morning... So there is a chance I'm still tired and not thinking properly. Haha
Change your form to
<form action="customers.php" id="navigation" method="get">
<fieldset data-role="controlgroup" data-mini="true" data-type="horizontal">
<input type="radio" name="letter" id="a" value="a">
<label for="a">A</label>
:
:
<input type="radio" name="letter" id="z" value="z">
<label for="z">Z</label>
</fieldset>
</form>
Then add some jquery to your scripts
$(function(){
var $navigation=$('#navigation');
$navigation.on('change','input[name=letter]',function(){
$navigation.submit();
// or to take a more complicated (read: unneccessary)
// window.location($navigation.attr('action')+'?letter='+$(this).val());
});
});
Do note: you should consider some validation in here. I wont bother mentioning security since you didnt post the rest of your script.

Using the HTML 'label' tag with radio buttons

Does the label tag work with radio buttons? If so, how do you use it? I have a form that displays like this:
First Name: (text field)
Hair Color: (color drop-down)
Description: (text area)
Salutation: (radio buttons for Mr., Mrs., Miss)
I'd like to use the label tag for each label in the left column to define its connection to the appropriate control in the right column. But If I use a radio button, the spec seems to indicate that suddenly the actual "Salutation" label for the form control no longer belongs in the label tag, but rather the options "Mr., Mrs., etc." go in the label tag.
I've always been a fan of accessibility and the semantic web, but this design doesn't make sense to me. The label tag explicitly declares labels. The option tag selection options. How do you declare a label on the actual label for a set of radio buttons?
UPDATE:
Here is an example with code:
<tr><th><label for"sc">Status:</label></th>
<td> </td>
<td><select name="statusCode" id="sc">
<option value="ON_TIME">On Time</option>
<option value="LATE">Late</option>
</select></td></tr>
This works great. But unlike other form controls, radio buttons have a separate field for each value:
<tr><th align="right"><label for="???">Activity:</label></th>
<td> </td>
<td align="left"><input type="radio" name="es" value="" id="es0" /> Active  
<input type="radio" name="es" value="ON_TIME" checked="checked" id="es1" /> Completed on Time  
<input type="radio" name="es" value="LATE" id="es2" /> Completed Late  
<input type="radio" name="es" value="CANCELED" id="es3" /> Canceled</td>
</tr>
What to do?
Does the label tag work with radio buttons?
Yes
If so, how do you use it?
Same way as for any other form control.
You either give it a for attribute that matches the id of the control, or you put the control inside the label element.
I'd like to use the label tag for each label in the left column
A label is for a control, not a set of controls.
If you want to caption a set of controls, use a <fieldset> with a <legend> (and give a <label> to each control in the set).
<fieldset>
<legend> Salutation </legend>
<label> <input type="radio" name="salutation" value="Mr."> Mr. </label>
<label> <input type="radio" name="salutation" value="Mrs."> Mrs. </label>
<!-- etc -->
</fieldset>
Ah yes. Here’s how it works.
<label> labels individual fields, hence each <input type="radio"> gets its own <label>.
To label a group of fields (e.g. several radio buttons that share the same name), you use a <fieldset> tag with a <legend> element.
<fieldset>
<legend>Salutation</legend>
<label for="salutation_mr">Mr <input id="salutation_mr" name="salutation" type="radio" value="mr"><label>
<label for="salutation_mrs">Mrs <input id="salutation_mrs" name="salutation" type="radio" value="mrs"><label>
<label for="salutation_miss">Miss <input id="salutation_miss" name="salutation" type="radio" value="miss"><label>
<label for="salutation_ms">Ms <input id="salutation_miss" name="salutation" type="radio" value="ms"><label>
</fieldset>
You can use the aria-role="radiogroup" to associate the controls without using a <fieldset>. This is one of the techniques suggested by WCAG 2.0.
<div role="radiogroup" aria-labelledby="profession_label" aria-describedby="profession_help">
<p id="profession_label">What is your profession?</p>
<p id="profession_help">If dual-classed, selected your highest leveled class</p>
<label><input name="profession" type="radio" value="fighter"> Fighter</label>
<label><input name="profession" type="radio" value="mage"> Mage</label>
<label><input name="profession" type="radio" value="cleric"> Cleric</label>
<label><input name="profession" type="radio" value="theif"> Thief</label>
</div>
However, I noticed that using this technique the WebAim Wave tool to give a warning about a missing <fieldset>, so I'm not sure what AT support for this is like.
You can't declare a label for a set of buttons, but for each button.
In this case, the labels are "Mr.", "Mrs." and "Miss", not "Salutation".
UPDATE
Maybe you should just use another tag for this "label" of yours - since it's not really a label.
<tr>
<th align="right" scope="row"><span class="label">Activity:</span></th>
<td> </td>
<td align="left"><label><input type="radio" name="es" value="" id="es0" /> Active  </label>
[... and so on]
</tr>
my 2 cents to the topic, or rather a side node (it does not use implicit association to be able to be placed anywhere, but linking):
grouping is done by the name attribute, and linking by the id attribute:
<ol>
<li>
<input type="radio" name="faqList" id="faqListItem1" checked />
<div>
<label for="faqListItem1">i 1</label>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<input type="radio" name="faqList" id="faqListItem2" />
<div>
<label for="faqListItem2">i 2</label>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<input type="radio" name="faqList" id="faqListItem3" />
<div>
<label for="faqListItem3">i 3</label>
</div>
</li>
</ol>
To answer your question: no, you can't connect Salutation to one of the radio buttons. It wouldn't make sense that if you'd click on Salutation, one of the options would be selected. Instead, you can give Mr, Mrs and Miss their own labels, so if someone clicks on one of those words, the corresponding radio button will be selected.
<input id="salutation_mr" type="radio" value="mr" name="salutation">
<label for="salutation_mr">Mr.</label>
<input id="salutation_mrs" type="radio" value="mrs" name="salutation">
<label for="salutation_mrs">Mrs.</label>
<input id="salutation_miss" type="radio" value="miss" name="salutation">
<label for="salutation_miss">Miss</label>
I do think that you could still wrap Salutation inside a <label> element, you just can't use the for attribute. I stand corrected, see the comments below. Although it's technically possible, it's not what <label> was meant for.
The Label's 'for' attribute corresponds to the Radio buttons ID. So...
<label for="thisRad">Radio Button 1</label>
<input type="radio" id="thisRad" />
Hope it helps.
You'd want yours to look something like this...
Salutation<br />
<label for="radMr">Mr.</label><input type="radio" id="radMr" />
<label for="radMrs">Mrs.</label><input type="radio" id="radMrs" />
<label for="radMiss">Miss.</label><input type="radio" id="radMiss" />

Does a name attribute have to be unique in a HTML document?

I remember reading in the spec once that both the id attribute and the name attribute share the same namespace and have to be unique. Henceforth I've always tried to fulfill this requirement in my applications, dreading even to give the same id and name to the same element.
But lately I've started working with ASP.NET MVC 3, and it (like PHP) can use the same name attribute on several input controls to form a collection of values at server-side. I tried to look up the relevant section in the spec - but failed to find it. Perhaps I have misunderstood something then, or read the wrong documentation?
How is it then? I want to produce as valid HTML as possible (both 4.01 and 5 in different apps). Can I use this trick without fear? Or would I be violating something and should better stick to unique values?
The name attribute is only valid on the <form> and form elements (<input>,<textarea> and <select>). It's used to specify the name to associate with the name/value pair that is submitted on a form post.
For example:
<input type="checkbox" name="foo" value="1" />
if checked will submit foo=1. In the DOM you can reference form elements from the form.elements collection by specifying the name as the index. If name is not unique, the collection returns an array of elements rather than the element. Modern DOM's support looking up form elements by name as:
document.getElementsByName(nameValue)
note: it always returns an array even if only one element is found.
id attribute is from the XML world, and is a unique id for any node, not just form elements. Unlike the name attribute it is valid on any HTML node. Also like the name attribute, it must follow the valid identifier rules. The identifier should start with an alpha, and only contain alpha ([a-zA-Z]), numbers, hyphen, underscore and colons (note ASP.NET breaks this rule by starting reserved IDs with a underscore - thus they will always fail an HTML/XML lint - actually some proxies strip them). To find any HTML element by id you use:
document.getElementById(idvalue)
this only returns one DOM node.
The name attribute is not unique. For instance, it is used to group radio buttons. It represents the value of a particular form property. ids must be unique.
ID should be unique but you can use multiple form elements with the same NAME. This is standard for how radio buttons work so you can force one seletion of a radio button group.
Must names be unique between forms for radio input groups?
I understood that name didn't have to be unique because radio elements can share the same name, but nobody said whether or not groups of radio elements in different forms would interfere with each other or not. So I created this simple example below to test. In my browser, I can pick 2 of the 6 radios in the example below, and there are two forms. So it appears that putting them in separate forms will isolate them.
<form>
<input type="radio" name="test" value="1">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="2">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="3">
</form>
<form>
<input type="radio" name="test" value="a">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="b">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="c">
</form>
I also wondered if the same behavior would hold true with the newer <fieldset> element, however it doesn't seem to. I guess that makes sense because if I sent the form it would need to format the data to accommodate the name conflict somehow. I can only pick 1 among the 6 radios here:
<form>
<fieldset name="test1">
<legend>test1</legend>
<input type="radio" name="test" value="1">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="2">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="3">
</fieldset>
<fieldset name="test2">
<legend>test2</legend>
<input type="radio" name="test" value="a">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="b">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="c">
</fieldset>
</form>
I'm not sure why anyone would want to do this, but you can also associate each element with a different form by using the form=<form id> attribute. It seems to separate the radio groups again. As shown here:
<form id="a">
</form>
<form id="b">
</form>
<fieldset name="test1">
<legend>test1</legend>
<input form="a" type="radio" name="test" value="1">
<input form="a" type="radio" name="test" value="2">
<input form="a" type="radio" name="test" value="3">
</fieldset>
<fieldset name="test2">
<legend>test2</legend>
<input form="b" type="radio" name="test" value="a">
<input form="b" type="radio" name="test" value="b">
<input form="b" type="radio" name="test" value="c">
</fieldset>
I think ideally a fieldset would create some sort of grouping that was more than just visual, but it doesn't oh well. At least radio groups can be separated by forms.
Addendum: What does the form data look like when you use the same name within two or more fieldsets inside of one form? Let's see.
My suspicions are confirmed. There's just one 'test' parameter and fieldsets have no effect on the data at all. Try picking a radio and hitting submit.
function examine(e){
e.preventDefault()
e.stopPropagation()
var formData = new FormData(e.target)
,formProps = Object.fromEntries(formData)
document.getElementById('out').innerText = JSON.stringify(formProps,null,2)
return false;
}
document.getElementById('mainform').addEventListener('submit',examine)
<form id="mainform">
<fieldset name="test1">
<legend>test1</legend>
<input type="radio" name="test" value="1">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="2">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="3">
</fieldset>
<fieldset name="test2">
<legend>test2</legend>
<input type="radio" name="test" value="a">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="b">
<input type="radio" name="test" value="c">
</fieldset>
<button type="submit">examine</button>
</form>
<pre id="out"></pre>

Radio button accessibility (508 compliance)

If I want to have a question with a "Yes/No" radio button. How do I need to mark up the code so that a screen reader reads the question associated with the "yes/no" selection instead of just reading the "Yes" and "No" labels when the radio buttons are selected?
<span>Did you understand this? (choose one) </span>
<label>
<input type="radio" id="yes_no" name="yes_no" value="Yes" />
Yes
</label>
<label>
<input type="radio" id="yes_no" name="yes_no" value="No" />
No
</label>
Thanks
For form elements of this nature I use:
<fieldset>
<legend>Did you understand the question?</legend>
<input type="radio" name="yes_no" id="yes">
<label for="yes">Yes</label>
<input type="radio" name="yes_no" id="no">
<label for="no">No</label>
</fieldset>
Also please take note that all ID values on a page should be unique. If you have an element that needs to share a descriptor then add it as a class.
I also use Fieldsets to add a distinct boundary to the radio selection.
And be sure to specify the for="id_value" attribute of the label. This will associate the label with the desired radio button.
<fieldset>
<legend><span>Did you understand this? (choose one) </span></legend>
<label>
<input type="radio" id="yes_no" name="yes_no" value="Yes" />
Yes
</label>
<label>
<input type="radio" id="yes_no" name="yes_no" value="No" />
No
</label>
</fieldset>
use the content attribute (if it is available).