Explain Chosen and Select2 with Examples

There are two jQuery plugins that can we use to style the select boxes that are Select2 and Chosen. Both the plugins Select2 and Chosen are improving the look of the selected boxes and enhancing the behavior of the boxes which leads to the make them user-friendly. Also, both of these plugins can be used for multiple selected boxes as well as single selected boxes.

Chosen

JavaScript plugin that creates the select boxes user-friendly that is chosen. Chosen is available in both the prototype and JQuery versions.

Features of the Chosen

User-friendly

Your users won't have to slog through a big list of possibilities; they can simply start the name of the thing they were looking for. Selecting alternatives merely involves hitting "enter" or clicking the mouse; entries that don't match are removed from the screen.

Progressive Enhancement

Since Chosen replaces the default HTML Select fields, it is no longer necessary to take any further steps to make it operate in browsers that do not support JavaScript. Events are not used by the back-end to manage data either.

Simple Setup

Just include the selected files in your app and turn on the plugin. Opt-groups, selected states, multiple characteristics, and browser tab order are all automatically respected by chosen.

Select2

Select2 provides the user with a customizable select box that can use for searching, remote data sets, tagging, infinite scrolling, and many more useful properties.

Features of Select2 are

It provides the user with a user-customizable choose box in addition to support for searching, tagging, remote datasets, endless scrolling, and many other options.

RTL Environments

It supports RTL environments and has built-in search capabilities for more than 40 languages.

Ajax

You may use Ajax to swiftly search a lengthy list of items.

Fully skinnable CSS created using Sass and an optional Bootstrap 3 theme.

Javascript libraries for Chosen

To use the chosen plugin in JQuery we have to add some libraries which are as follows −

• chosen.jquery.min.js

• chosen.min.css

Also to activate the plugin on the selected boxes we have to add the piece of code as follows −

$(“.chosen-select”).chosen()

The above-written piece of code is the script in JQuery.

JavaScript libraries for Select2

To use the select2 plugin in jQuery we have to add some libraries which are as follows −

• select2.min.js

• select2.min.css

Also to activate the plugin on the selected boxes we have to add the piece of code as follows −

$(“.chosen-select”).select2()

The above-written piece of code is the script in jQuery.

We have seen the basics of both chosen and select2, now let’s move to the main point which is the difference between both of them that we are going to watch in the points.

Difference between Chosen and Select2

The two most used libraries for enhancing select-boxes are chosen and select2. Chosen is more ancient than Select2 and supports both jQuery and Prototype. Both are being updated. Select2 was inspired by Chosen and solely supports jQuery.

Let’s move to the difference between chosen and select2 −

Loading Data

While loading data using chosen, it needs to load the entire dataset as an option tag in the DOM because of this there comes a limit to working with the small kind of datasets. On the other hand, Select2 uses the concept of the function which leads to finding the results dynamically that allows the select2 method to load the results partially as removes the drawbacks of chosen.

Requirement of Paging

As we have discussed in the previous point the whole dataset is loaded at once by the Chosen which means that there is no use to divide the data into various parts so there is no use for the paging concept. On the other hand, Select2 function works with the complete dataset and partially loads the required results and it supports the concept of paging. When the user scrolls to the bottom of the current data present then it will call the search function that provides more data by loading it.

Type of Markup Support

By the option tags, the only markup support provided is the rendering text which is supported by the chosen on the other hand there is an extension point provided by Select2 which can be used to make various kinds of markup to represent the results.

Adding Results

To add the results there are two options for Chosen and select2 either static or dynamic but chosen fails to add results dynamically results while select2 performs the total opposite of it and allows the addition of the results dynamically by using tagging.

Development

Sass and CoffeeScript are used to develop the chosen while to develop the select2 plain JavaScript and CSS are used.

Above given differences are the main difference between the chosen and the select, there are some minor differences present also like, the size of the chosen is 27KB, and the size of the select2 is more which is 57 KB.

Note − Saas and CoffeeScript have been found to make debugging Chosen considerably more difficult.

Select2 openly supports mobile, whereas Chosen purposefully disables itself on certain devices. Therefore, it is advised to utilize Select2 if you want to use "expanded select-boxes" on mobile.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned that there are two JQuery plugins that can we use to style the select boxes that are Select2 and Chosen. Both the plugins Select2 and Chosen are improving the look of the selected boxes and enhancing the behavior of the boxes which leads to the make them user-friendly. There are many differences between Select2 and chosen, including the loading process of data, the need for paging, the ability to add the results dynamically, and how they are developed.