checkboxes
A checkboxes
field allows a list of options where a user can select one or more items. Checkbox items can also be deselected, unlike radio fields.
Module field definition
// Configuring the `genres` field in a module's `fields.add` subsection:
genres: {
label: 'Select the genres that apply to this book',
type: 'checkboxes',
choices: [
{
label: 'Romance 🥰',
value: 'romance'
},
{
label: 'Comedy 🤣',
value: 'comedy'
},
{
label: 'Crime 😰',
value: 'crime'
}
]
}
Settings
Required
Property | Type | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|
choices | array | n/a | An array of options that the editor can select from, or a method name that returns them. See below. |
label | String | n/a | Sets the visible label for the field in the UI |
type | String | n/a | Specifies the field type (checkboxes for this type) |
Optional
Property | Type | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|
def | Array | n/a | The default value for the field. Values must be from the defined choices' values. |
help | String | n/a | Help text for the content editor |
htmlHelp | String | n/a | Help text with support for HTML markup |
if | Object | {} | Conditions to meet before the field is active. See the guide for details. |
requiredIf | Object | {} | Conditions to meet before the field is required. See the guide for details. |
hidden | Boolean | false | If true , the field is hidden |
required | Boolean | false | If true , the field is mandatory |
readOnly | Boolean | false | If true , prevents the user from editing the field value |
style | String | n/a | If 'combo', adds a selection choices box and dropdown list of choices |
all | Object | n/a | If style: 'combo' , adds a choice to select every option with a label set by the label property |
choices
configuration
The choices
setting in checkboxes
, radio
, or select
fields configures the options that a user will see in the interface and the values that the server will allow in validation. The choices
value is an array of objects with label
and value
properties.
value
is used in the field's database valuelabel
is the more human-readable version used in interfaces
Populating choices
dynamically
What if the choices aren't known in advance? Then you can fetch them dynamically.
First, set the choices
option to the name of a method in your module. Pass a string, the name of the method you'll implement on the server side — do not pass a function.
Second, implement that method in your module so that it takes (req, data)
arguments and return an array of choices in the usual format. You may use an async function, or return a promise that will resolve to the array. That means you can reach out to APIs using modules like axios
or node-fetch
, or make Apostrophe database queries.
The data
argument is an object containing the parent's docId
for further inspection by your function.
It is usually a good idea to perform at least short-term caching in your choices method, in order to limit the impact on performance when editing.
Use in templates
The checkboxes field data value is stored in an array of the selected options' value. Nunjucks provides the {% for %}
template tag that you can use to loop over the array.
<ul>
{% for genre in data.piece.genres %}
<li>{{ genre }}</li>
{% endfor %}
</ul>