DEV Community

Lane Wagner
Lane Wagner

Posted on • Originally published at qvault.io on

How to Make a Custom Select Component in Vue.js

Customizing the design of a select tag is notoriously difficult. Sometimes its impossible without building your own from scratch using a combination of styled divs with custom JavaScript. In this article you will learn how to build a Vue.js component that can be styled using completely custom CSS.

Demo: https://codesandbox.io/s/custom-vuejs-select-component-8nqgd

The HTML

<template>
  <div
    class="custom-select"
    :tabindex="tabindex"
    @blur="open = false"
  >
    <div
      class="selected"
      :class="{open: open}"
      @click="open = !open"
    >
      {{ selected }}
    </div>
    <div
      class="items"
      :class="{selectHide: !open}"
    >
      <div
        class="item"
        v-for="(option, i) of options"
        :key="i"
        @click="selected=option; open=false; $emit('input', option)"
      >
        {{ option }}
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</template>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Important things to note here:

  • The ‘tabindex’ property allows our component to be focused, which in turn allows it to be blurred. The blur event closes our component when a user clicks outside of the component.
  • By emitting the selected option using the ‘input’ parameter, the parent component can react to changes easily.

The JavaScript

<script>
export default {
  props:{
    options:{
      type: Array,
      required: true
    },
    tabindex:{
      type: Number,
      required: false,
      default: 0
    }
  },
  data() {
    return {
      selected: this.options.length > 0 ? this.options[0] : null,
      open: false
    };
  },
  mounted(){
    this.$emit('input', this.selected);
  }
};
</script>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Important things to note here:

  • We also emit the selected value on mount so that the parent doesn’t need to set the default value explicitly.
  • If our select component is a small part of a larger form, we want to be able to set the correct tabindex.

The CSS

<style scoped>

.custom-select {
  position: relative;
  width: 100%;
  text-align: left;
  outline: none;
  height: 47px;
  line-height: 47px;
}

.selected {
  background-color: #080D0E;
  border-radius: 6px;
  border: 1px solid #858586;
  color: #ffffff;
  padding-left: 8px;
  cursor: pointer;
  user-select: none;
}

.selected.open{
  border: 1px solid #CE9B2C;
  border-radius: 6px 6px 0px 0px;
}

.selected:after {
  position: absolute;
  content: "";
  top: 22px;
  right: 10px;
  width: 0;
  height: 0;
  border: 4px solid transparent;
  border-color: #fff transparent transparent transparent;
}

.items {
  color: #ffffff;
  border-radius: 0px 0px 6px 6px;
  overflow: hidden;
  border-right: 1px solid #CE9B2C;
  border-left: 1px solid #CE9B2C;
  border-bottom: 1px solid #CE9B2C;
  position: absolute;
  background-color: #080D0E;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
}

.item{
  color: #ffffff;
  padding-left: 8px;
  cursor: pointer;
  user-select: none;
}

.item:hover{
  background-color: #B68A28;
}

.selectHide {
  display: none;
}
</style>
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

This CSS is just an example, its what we use for the Qvault app. Feel free to completely change the styling to whatever your needs are.

I hope this helps you create your own custom select components, here is a link to a gist of the full component:

Again, check out the demo for a live example: https://codesandbox.io/s/custom-vuejs-select-component-8nqgd

By Lane Wagner @wagslane

Download Qvault: https://qvault.io

Star our Github: https://github.com/q-vault/qvault

The post How to Make a Custom Select Component in Vue.js appeared first on Qvault.

Top comments (0)