How to dynamically filter a select2 listing based on option class

Question

I have a dropdown select of optional 'opportunities' (id="opportunities" in the example below) which I enhance using the select2 jquery plugin, and wish to dynamically filter this list in order to reduce the possible options presented to a user using a 2nd select dropdown (id="group-select" in the example below),

<label>
  Select an opportunity<br>
  <select id="opportunities" style="width:300px;" multiple="multiple" name="selected-opps" value="">
    <optgroup label="Class A">
      <option class="group-1" value="1a">Opportunity 1a</option>
      <option class="group-2" value="2a">Opportunity 2a</option>
    </optgroup>
    <optgroup label="Class B">
      <option class="group-1" value="1b">Opportunity 1b</option>
      <option class="group-2" value="2b">Opportunity 2b</option>
    </optgroup>
    <optgroup label="Class C">
      <option class="group-1" value="1c">Opportunity 1c</option>
      <option class="group-2" value="2c">Opportunity 2c</option>
    </optgroup>
  </select>
</label>
<select id="group-select">
  <option value="">Select a group</option>
  <option value="group-1">group 1</option>
  <option value="group-2">group 2</option>
</select>
</div>
<div id="select-opportunity"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function( $ ) {
  'use strict';

   var opportunities = $('select#opportunities').select2({
    dropdownParent: $('#select-opportunity')
  });
})( jQuery );
</script>

I wish to be able to make a selection in the 2nd select, say 'group 1' and would like the select2 list to contain only 'group-1' items as per the option in the first select dropdown that have the grouo-1 class attribute.

Aurovrata Aurovrata · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-28T13:01:19

I managed to solve this using 2 optional functionality provided by the select2 plugin, namely the ability to control the way items are built and displayed using the templating functionality, and using the programmatic control exposed in the plugin. I replaced the javascript appended below the example in the question with,

<script type="text/javascript">
(function( $ ) {
  'use strict';

  var opportunities = $('select#opportunities').select2({
    dropdownParent: $('#select-opportunity'),
    templateResult: formatItem
  });
  function formatItem (state) {
    if (!state.id) { return state.text; }
    //change the id of our select2 items
    state._resultId = state._resultId+'-'+state.element.className;
    var $state = $(
      '<span class="opportunity-item ' + state.element.className + '">' + state.text + '</span>'
    );
    return $state;
  }
  $('select#group-select').change( function() {
    //hide the unwanted options
    var group = $('select#group-select option:selected').val();
    //clear the styling element
    $('style#select2-style').empty();

    if(group){
      //if a group is selected we need to hide all the others
      $('select#group-select option').not(':selected').each(function(){
        group = $(this).val();
        if(group){
          $('style#select2-style').append(
           'li[id$="'+group+'"]{display:none;}'
          );
        }
      });
    }
    //force the select2 to referesh by opening and closing it again
    opportunities.select2('open');
    opportunities.select2('close');
  });


})( jQuery );
</script>
<style id="select2-style"></style>

I have also added an empty <style> element at the bottom in which I dynamically create the rules required to hide the unwanted items.

The logic

The code above creates templating function formatItem that the select2 plugin will use to format the items. The item state object is passed to the function which includes the unique id for each item.

This id is modified by appending the class of the corresponding option element.

When a group option is selected in the 2nd dropdown select (#group-select) a set of styling is created and appended to the bottom <style> element to hide all the elements whose id attributes end with the class names to be hidden, for example if one seleced group-1, the code will create a style to hide group-2 items,

li[id$="group-2"] { 
  display:none;
}

However for this to work we need to force the select2 dropdown to refresh to pick up the new styling and the only way I found for this work was to use the programmatic control of the plugin to 'open' and immediately 'close' the select2 dropdown.

How to dynamically filter a select2 listing based on option class

2 Answers

The logic