Adding disabled option in codeigniter form_dropdown

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to add a disabled option in my dropdown, using codeIgniter. New to CI, and I've tried googling it a bit, but couldn't find an answer.

My code for a dropdown looks like this:

    echo form_dropdown('category', array('0' => 'Choose a category...')  + $categories, '0');

This gives me a dropdown with all my options from the variable $categories, with "Choose a category..." (value 0) at top. Now how to I make the first one disabled? I know how to make it select a specific one, which I've set it to do here.

Can anyone help me? Thanks

Answer 1

I know this is an old post, but in the current version of CI, I can do a little (sql-injection-like) trick by appending " disabled="disabled to the keys of the option I would like to disable.

$categories['0'] = '(Select Category)';
$categories['1'] = 'Category 1';
$categories['2" disabled="disabled'] = 'Restricted Category';
$categories['3'] = 'Category 3';

echo form_dropdown('category', $categories, '0');

I am not sure if this is a bug of CI's form_helper, since it does not do any escaping or sanitizing function for the dropdown key/values. For the mean time, to be safe, just make sure your keys and values wont be coming from any user-based input.

Answer 2

If you have a few static options only the $options variable can be a simple string too, containing the options in html format, like this:

$options = "
<option value=0 disabled>Select Category</option>
<option value=1>Category 1</option>
<option value=2>Category 2</option>";

echo form_dropdown('category', $options, '0');

Answer 3

Just add the fourth param $extra to your dropdown as a string like this 'disabled=disabled' as explained in CI Docs at https://codeigniter.com/user_guide/helpers/form_helper.html#available-functions

echo form_dropdown('category', array('0' => 'Choose a category...')  + $categories, '0', 'disabled=disabled');

Answer 4

<?php echo validation_errors(); ?>
<?php echo form_open(''); ?>

<?php echo form_label('Gender:'); ?>
<?php echo form_dropdown(array('id'=>'selectinform', 'name'=>'gender', 'options'=>array('1'=>'Select', '2'=>'2','3'=>'3'), 'selected'=>'1')); ?>

<?php echo form_submit(array('id'=>'submit', 'value'=>'submit')); ?>
<?php echo form_close(); ?>

<script>
    $(document).ready(function(){
        $("#selectinform option:first").attr('disabled', 'disabled');
    });
</script>

Result - IMG

Answer 5

If you still want to use form_helper, you always can extends helper file and make 'disable' tag available. Create MY_Form_helper.php and put that under helper directory, then define function form_dropdown in that custom helper, then it will overide the form helper behaviour.

Answer 6

This works because codeigniter pass the key as full string:

<?php
$field['select'] = array(
    'blah" disabled="disabled"' => 'Select some',
    '0' => 'Never',
    '1' => 'Daily',
    '7' => 'Weekly',
    '14' => 'Every 14 days',
    '30' => 'Monthly',
);
?>


<?php echo form_dropdown($field['name'], $field['select'], (!empty($field['value'])) ? $field['value'] : 'blah" disabled="disabled"', 'id="' . $field['name'] . '" class="form-control"' . $field['extra']);?>

Answer 7

From the CI user guide at http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/helpers/form_helper.html :

If you would like the opening to contain additional data, like an id attribute or JavaScript, you can pass it as a string in the fourth parameter:

So you code becomes:

    echo form_dropdown('category', array('0' => 'Choose a category...')  + $categories, '0', 'disabled="disabled"');

However, unless you are a PHP fanatic or are using CSRF protection through the form helper I would just type out your form html yourself. It is the same amount of text and you are using less functions.

Answer 8

Solution:

Change the 437th string of form_helper.php :

from

.(in_array($key, $selected) ? ' selected="selected"' : '').’>'

to

.(in_array($key, $selected) ? ' disabled="disabled"' : '').’>'

and use selected feature as disabled . Looks like an lifehack, but it works