listbox

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This element is used to create a list of items where one or more of the items may be selected. A listbox may contain multiple columns. There are numerous methods which allow the items in the listbox to be retrieved and modified.

You may specify the number of rows to display in the list using the rows attribute. Additional rows can be viewed using a scroll bar. A listbox is expected to contain listitem elements. All the rows in the listbox are the same height, which is the height of the tallest item in the list. If you wish to create a list with variable height rows, or with non-text content, you should instead use the richlistbox element.

See List Controls for more information.

Attributes: disabled, disableKeyNavigation, preference, rows, seltype, suppressonselect, tabindex, value

Properties: accessibleType, currentIndex, currentItem, disabled, disableKeyNavigation, itemCount, listBoxObject, selectedCount, selectedIndex, selectedItem, selectedItems, selType, suppressOnSelect, tabIndex, value

Methods: addItemToSelection, appendItem, clearSelection, ensureElementIsVisible, ensureIndexIsVisible, getIndexOfFirstVisibleRow, getIndexOfItem, getItemAtIndex, getNumberOfVisibleRows, getRowCount, getSelectedItem, insertItemAt, invertSelection, moveByOffset, removeItemAt, removeItemFromSelection, scrollToIndex, selectAll, selectItem, selectItemRange, timedSelect, toggleItemSelection

Examples

<listbox id="theList">
  <listitem label="Ruby"/>
  <listitem label="Emerald"/>
  <listitem label="Sapphire" selected="true"/>
  <listitem label="Diamond"/>
</listbox>

<listbox id="theList" rows="10" width="400">
  <listhead>
    <listheader label="1ct Gem" width="240"/>
    <listheader label="Price" width="150"/>
  </listhead>
  <listcols>
    <listcol/>
    <listcol flex="1"/>
  </listcols>
</listbox>

var theList = document.getElementById('theList');
    gems = [  {gem: "Ruby", Price: "$3,500 - $4,600"},
           {gem: "Emerald", Price: "$700 - 4,250"},
           {gem: "Blue Sapphire", Price: "$3,400 - $4,500"},
           {gem: "Diamond", Price: "$5,600 - $16,000"}  ];

for (var i = 0; i < gems.length; i++) {
    var row = document.createElement('listitem');
    var cell = document.createElement('listcell');
    cell.setAttribute('label', gems[i].gem);
    row.appendChild(cell);

    cell = document.createElement('listcell');
    cell.setAttribute('label',  gems[i].Price );
    row.appendChild(cell);

    theList.appendChild(row);
}

Attributes

disabled: Type: boolean; Indicates whether the element is disabled or not. If this attribute is set, the element is disabled. Disabled elements are usually drawn with grayed-out text. If the element is disabled, it does not respond to user actions, it cannot be focused, and the command event will not fire. In the case of form elements, it will not be submitted. Do not set the attribute to true, as this will suggest you can set it to false to enable the element again, which is not the case.
The disabled attribute is allowed only for form controls. Using it with an anchor tag (an <a> link) will have no effect.

The element will, however, still respond to mouse events. To enable the element, leave this attribute out entirely.; Visible controls have a disabled property which, except for menus and menuitems, is normally preferred to use of the attribute, as it may need to update additional state.

disableKeyNavigation: Type: boolean; If this attribute is not used, the user can navigate to specific items within the element by pressing keys corresponding to letters in the item's label. This is done incrementally, so typing more letters with select more specific items. This feature may be disabled by setting this attribute to true.

preference: Type: id; Connects the element to a corresponding preference. This attribute only has any effect when used inside a prefwindow. More information is available in the Preferences System article.

rows: Type: integer; The number of rows to display in the element. If the element contains more than this number of rows, a scrollbar will appear which the user can use to scroll to the other rows. To get the actual number of rows in the element, use the getRowCount method.

seltype

Type: one of the values below

Used to indicate whether multiple selection is allowed.

single: Only one row may be selected at a time. (Default in listbox and richlistbox.)
multiple: Multiple rows may be selected at once. (Default in tree.)

For trees, you can also use the following values:

cell: Individual cells can be selected
text: Rows are selected; however, the selection highlight appears only over the text of the primary column.

For richlistbox, this is new in Firefox 3.5.

suppressonselect: Type: boolean; If this attribute is not specified, a select event is fired whenever an item is selected, either by the user or by calling one of the select methods. If set to true, the select event is never fired.

tabindex: Type: integer; The tab order of the element. The tab order is the order in which the focus is moved when the user presses the "tab" key. Elements with a higher tabindex are later in the tab sequence.

value: Type: string; The string attribute allows you to associate a data value with an element. It is not used for any specific purpose, but you can access it with a script for your own use. Be aware, however, that some elements, such as textbox will display the value visually, so in order to merely associate data with an element, you could 1) Use another attribute like "value2" or "data-myAtt" (as in the HTML5 draft), as XUL does not require validation (less future-proof); 2) Use setAttributeNS() to put custom attributes in a non-XUL namespace (serializable and future-proof); 3) Use setUserData() (future-proof and clean, but not easily serializable). For user editable menulist elements, the contents, as visible to the user, are read and set using the Menulist.value syntax. For those elements, setAttribute("value", myValue) and getAttribute("value") do not access or affect the contents displayed to the user.

Properties

accessibleType: Type: integer; A value indicating the type of accessibility object for the element.

currentIndex: Type: integer; Set to the index of the currently focused item in the list. If no item is focused, the value will be -1. (or, on some platforms, typeof(listboxcurrentIndex) will be undefined) In a single selection list, the current index will always be the same as the selected index. In a multiple selection list, the currently focused row may be modified by the user without changing the selection by pressing the Control key and pressing the cursor keys to navigate.

currentItem: Type: listitem element; Returns the currently focused item in the list box, which is only useful in a multiple selection list box.

disabled: Type: boolean; Gets and sets the value of the disabled attribute.

disableKeyNavigation: Type: boolean; Gets or sets the value of the disableKeyNavigation attribute.

itemCount: Type: integer; Read only property holding the number of child items.

listBoxObject: Type: nsIListBoxObject; The nsIListBoxObject behind the list box. This property is read-only. Most of the features of the list box are already available directly in the listbox, so you will rarely have need to use this box object directly.

selectedCount: Type: integer; Returns the number of items that are currently selected.

selectedIndex: Type: integer; Returns the index of the currently selected item. You may select an item by assigning its index to this property. By assigning -1 to this property, all items will be deselected. Returns -1 if no items are selected

selectedItem: Type: element; Holds the currently selected item. If no item is currently selected, this value will be null. You can select an item by setting this value. A select event will be sent to the controlling container (i.e. the listbox, richlistbox, radiogroup, etc., not the list item that was selected) when it is changed either via this property, the selectedIndex property, or changed by the user.

selectedItems: Type: array of listitems; Returns an array of the selected items in the list.

selType: Type: string; Gets and sets the value of the seltype attribute.

suppressOnSelect: Type: boolean; Gets and sets the value of the suppressonselect attribute.

tabIndex: Type: integer; Gets and sets the value of the tabindex attribute.

value: Type: string; Gets and sets the value of the value attribute. For textbox and user editable menulist elements, the contents, as visible to the user, are read and set using the Textbox.value and Menulist.value syntax.

Methods

Inherited Methods
addEventListener(), appendChild(), blur, click, cloneNode(), compareDocumentPosition, dispatchEvent(), doCommand, focus, getAttribute(), getAttributeNode(), getAttributeNodeNS(), getAttributeNS(), getBoundingClientRect(), getClientRects(), getElementsByAttribute, getElementsByAttributeNS, getElementsByClassName(), getElementsByTagName(), getElementsByTagNameNS(), getFeature(), getUserData, hasAttribute(), hasAttributeNS(), hasAttributes(), hasChildNodes(), insertBefore(), isDefaultNamespace(), isEqualNode, isSameNode, isSupported(), lookupNamespaceURI, lookupPrefix, normalize(), querySelector(), querySelectorAll(), removeAttribute(), removeAttributeNode(), removeAttributeNS(), removeChild(), removeEventListener(), replaceChild(), setAttribute(), setAttributeNode(), setAttributeNodeNS(), setAttributeNS(), setUserData

addItemToSelection( item ): Return type: no return value; Selects the given item, without deselecting any other items that are already selected.

appendItem( label, value ): Return type: element; Creates a new item and adds it to the end of the existing list of items. You may optionally set a value. The function returns the newly created element.

clearSelection(): Return type: no return value; Deselects all of the items. A select event is sent before the items are deselected.

ensureElementIsVisible( element ): Return type: no return value; If the specified element is not currently visible to the user, the displayed items are scrolled so that it is. If the item is already visible, no scrolling occurs.

ensureIndexIsVisible( index ): Return type: no return value; If the item at the specified index is not currently visible to the user the displayed items are scrolled so that it is. If the item is already visible, no scrolling occurs.

getIndexOfFirstVisibleRow(): Return type: integer; Returns the index of the first displayed row. Note that this is not the same as the first row -- if the displayed items have been scrolled down, this function will retrieve the index of the first row that the user can see.

getIndexOfItem( item ): Return type: integer; Returns the zero-based position of the specified item. Items are numbered starting at the first item displayed in the list.

getItemAtIndex( index ): Return type: element; Returns the element that is at the specified index.

getNumberOfVisibleRows(): Return type: integer; Returns the number of rows that are currently visible to the user.

getRowCount(): Return type: integer; Returns the total number of rows in the element, regardless of how many rows are displayed.

getSelectedItem( index ): Return type: element; When multiple items are selected, you can retrieve each selected item using this method. The argument index specifies the index in the list of the selected items, not the row number of the item. The item index is zero-based, thus this example will return the first selected item: getSelectedItem(0).

insertItemAt( index, label, value ): Return type: element; This method creates a new item and inserts it at the specified position. You may optionally set a value. The new item element is returned.

invertSelection(): Return type: no return value; Reverses the selected state of all items. Selected items become deselected, and deselected items become selected.

moveByOffset( offset , isSelecting, isSelectingRange): Return type: no return value; If offset is positive, adjusts the focused item forward by that many items. If offset is negative, adjusts the focused item backward by that many items. If isSelecting is true, then the selection is also adjusted. If isSelectingRange is also true, then the new item is selected in addition to any currently selected items. If isSelectingRange is false, any existing selection is cleared. Items that are hidden are skipped.

removeItemAt( index ): Return type: element; Removes the child item in the element at the specified index. The method returns the removed item.

removeItemFromSelection( item ): Return type: no return value; Deselects the specified item without deselecting other items.

scrollToIndex( index ): Return type: no return value; Scrolls the element to the specified index. This is different than ensureIndexIsVisible because the view is always scrolled.

selectAll(): Return type: no return value; Selects all of the items. A select event is sent after the selection is made.

selectItem( item ): Return type: no return value; Deselects all of the currently selected items and selects the given item. A select event is sent after the selection is made.

selectItemRange( startItem, endItem ): Return type: no return value; Selects the items between the two items given as arguments, including the start and end items. All other items are deselected. This method does nothing for single-selection list boxes. A select event is sent after the selection is made.

timedSelect( item, timeout ): Return type: no return value; Selects the item specified by the argument item after the number of milliseconds given by the timeout argument. All other items are deselected.

toggleItemSelection( item ): Return type: no return value; If the specified item is selected, it is deselected. If it is not selected, it is selected. Other items in the list box that are selected are not affected, and retain their selected state.

Elements: listcell, listcol, listcols, listhead, listheader, listitem

Interfaces: nsIAccessibleProvider, nsIDOMXULMultiSelectControlElement