I was working on a project recently where form checkboxes were required, but the standard UI would not do. I needed something a little more engaging. So in this short tut, I’ll show how to turn this…

…into this

View the demo • Download files

Those new to jQuery should check out these tutorials and resources.

I’m sure you’re psyched. Let’s get started…

1. Form markup

So normally you’d have some structure like this:

Choose some stuff...
 Choice one
 Choice two
 Choice three
 Choice four

Send it!

All well and good, but we need more. We will use list items to hold the checkboxes, content and controls:

Choose some stuff...



Here's the 1st selection
Select
Cancel


Here's the 2nd selection
Select
Cancel


Here's the 3rd selection
Select
Cancel


Here's the 4th selection
Select
Cancel

Send it!

The checkboxes are still there, but we won’t be clicking them. The checking/unchecking will handled by the “Select” and “Cancel” links within each list item.

2. Backgrounds

Each list item has a selected (green) and deselected (grey) state. This is most easily taken care of by using one background image, and shifting the position when needed. Fire up Photoshop and create these images:

The list items will be 105 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall, so checkboxbg.gif should be 210 pixels wide (double the width). When it is selected, the background will shift to the left by 105 pixels to expose the green side. We’ll get to the CSS for this shortly.

Sendit.gif and select.gif will serve as backgrounds for the submit button and select link, respectively.

3. CSS

legend {
font-size: 17px;
}

fieldset {
border: 0;
}

.checklist {
list-style: none;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}

.checklist li {
float: left;
margin-right: 10px;
background: url(i/checkboxbg.gif) no-repeat 0 0;
width: 105px;
height: 150px;
position: relative;
font: normal 11px/1.3 "Lucida Grande","Lucida","Arial",Sans-serif;
}

.checklist li.selected {
background-position: -105px 0;
}

.checklist li.selected .checkbox-select {
display: none;
}

.checkbox-select {
display: block;
float: left;
position: absolute;
top: 118px;
left: 10px;
width: 85px;
height: 23px;
background: url(i/select.gif) no-repeat 0 0;
text-indent: -9999px;
}

.checklist li input {
display: none;
}

a.checkbox-deselect {
display: none;
color: white;
font-weight: bold;
text-decoration: none;
position: absolute;
top: 120px;
right: 10px;
}

.checklist li.selected a.checkbox-deselect {
display: block;
}

.checklist li label {
display: block;
text-align: center;
padding: 8px;
}

.sendit {
display: block;
float: left;
top: 118px;
left: 10px;
width: 115px;
height: 34px;
border: 0;
cursor: pointer;
background: url(i/sendit.gif) no-repeat 0 0;
text-indent: -9999px;
margin: 20px 0;
}

As I mentioned above, the effect of adding a class of “selected” to the list item shifts the background image, hides the “Select” link and shows the “Cancel” link. The checkbox itself is also hidden entirely (but it needs to be present in the markup).

4. jQuery

Here’s where we weave this together.

$(document).ready(function() {

/* see if anything is previously checked and reflect that in the view*/
$(".checklist input:checked").parent().addClass("selected");

/* handle the user selections */
$(".checklist .checkbox-select").click(
function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
$(this).parent().addClass("selected");
$(this).parent().find(":checkbox").attr("checked","checked");

}
);

$(".checklist .checkbox-deselect").click(
function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
$(this).parent().removeClass("selected");
$(this).parent().find(":checkbox").removeAttr("checked");

}
);

});
});

Line 4

Looks to see if there are any pre-checked checkboxes, and assigns the appropriate class if there are any.

Line 7

This selector grabs all those green “Select” buttons and assigns a script to the click event.

Lines 9, 10, 11

We want to prevent the link from invoking its default behavior of reloading the page, and continue with our instructions. The $(this) object refers to the “Select” button itself:

[html]<a href="#">Select</a>[/html]

So $(this).parent() refers its parent in the DOM, which is the <li> element. This is the element we want to add a class of “selected” to. Finally, line 11 makes sure that the checkbox is actually selected by setting its “checked” attribute.

Line 16

This selector catches all the “Cancel” links (which become visible when the list item’s class is set to “selected”).

Lines 18, 19, 20

This essentially undoes everything we did in lines 9, 10 and 11 above.

So what can you do with this?

Anything you want. You can keep things simple and familiar by creating custom designed checkboxes, or take a more innovative approach and employ a more creative multiple selection UI. You could even create a toggle switch like those found in the iPhone settings. This tutorial is more of a starting point.

I’ve rewritten some of this so it is valid for XHTML 1.0 Transitional. I also fixed a bug whereby the “pretty” version of the form did not recognize preselected checkboxes.

The core method I’ve shown would also work great for radio buttons. Bagwan Pankaj, Sean Foushee and Philip Beel all have since offered great tutorials on how to extended this concept to radio buttons.

View the demo

Download files