[autocomplete] Option to select all options if multiple selections enabled

[vileppanen]

• I have searched the issues of this repository and believe that this is not a duplicate.

Summary 💡

I tried to search from issues whether this would've been discussed already, but wasn't able to found one, so here goes:

Would it make sense to provide a prop for Autocomplete component to display a fixed "Select all" option in the options drop-down, if multiple is set for the component?

Examples 🌈

CodeSandbox demo, with ListBox customization:
https://codesandbox.io/s/thirsty-moon-9egd9

Motivation 🔦

The requirement I'd need to fulfill, is that every selectable option should be easily selected "via one click", and, the ability to do so should exist in close vicinity of the Autocomplete component (= in the options ListBox)

Currently, this needs customization from the developer, and seems that there are many ways to achieve the wanted behavior. But gut feeling is, that each customization is prone to contain some amount of smelling hacks (might also be, that I've missed some key factors upon implementations).

Some technical requirements, I came up with for the "select all" enabled Autocomplete:

• separate the "select all" from other actual "options" (for me it seems clearer to have that distinction)
• use the Autocomplete component, instead of useAutocomplete hook, as the Autocomplete component provides 90% of other functionalities out of the box (which is more than enough for me)
• display "select all" always on top, outside of the scrolling content

I've experimented this, by providing a customized ListBox for the Autocomplete component, that always renders some "select all" component on top, and props.children after that.

This mostly works, but the "select all" cannot be focused via keyboard navigation, as it's missing the tabindex and the data-option-index attributes --> data-option-index is dynamically generated, and I wouldn't want to "regenerate" them. Why I'd need to regenerate them? Because I'd like to have the "select all" option not to be included in the options, and the attributes are generated for the options.

[oliviertassinari]

@vileppanen Why not making the "Select all" action an option, like the other?

[vileppanen]

Initially I thought of it, and I guess it would work 🤔 ...but then I'd have to customize at least the following:

• I'd need to filter out the "select all" option from the selected values (in addition, I'd need some way to reliably identify, which of the selected values is the "select all" option)
• I'd need to style the "select all" option so, that it would always float on top of the drop down list

Those two considerations made me hesitate, as I'd want to have quite simple and clear API on the the component. Let's say for instance, if I pass an array of objects, with following structure { id: 'some id', title: 'Some title' } to options --> how do I include the "select all" option in that sort of list, without having too much of additional filtering and logic to distinguish the select-all option?

Guess my main issue is, that I tend to think that the "select all" option is only a visual UI component, instead of an option that is derived from some external data?

[oliviertassinari]

I'm closing as we have no bandwidth to handle special cases like this one.

I have added the waiting for users upvotes tag. Please upvote this issue if you are interested in seeing it resolved. We will prioritize our effort based on the number of upvotes.

[oliviertassinari]

You can find an demo on how to repurpose the option in https://material-ui.com/components/autocomplete/#creatable.

[vileppanen]

I've somehow missed the filterOptions prop completely, which seems to indeed help me on this matter...although it doesn't free me from the additional logic needed to exclude the "select-all" option.

....and just figured, in my case it's just the same to include the "select all" in the original options list :D...

But it'll do.

[flora8984461]

I've somehow missed the filterOptions prop completely, which seems to indeed help me on this matter...although it doesn't free me from the additional logic needed to exclude the "select-all" option.

....and just figured, in my case it's just the same to include the "select all" in the original options list :D...

But it'll do.

Hi, thank you for your opening this, I am also encountering the same issue. How you solve it when selecting all, the other selections are all selected?

Thanks for your help!

[vileppanen]

I've somehow missed the filterOptions prop completely, which seems to indeed help me on this matter...although it doesn't free me from the additional logic needed to exclude the "select-all" option.
....and just figured, in my case it's just the same to include the "select all" in the original options list :D...
But it'll do.

Hi, thank you for your opening this, I am also encountering the same issue. How you solve it when selecting all, the other selections are all selected?

Thanks for your help!

Not quite sure if it was this that you asked, but what I basically ended up with was something like this:

1. I provide an array of objects with fixed structure to options, structure being { label: 'Some option label', value: 'the-value-of-the-option' }
2. In filterOptions I just return the filtered values, accomodating following object on top of the list: { label: 'Select all', value: 'select-all' } (so I'm deciding here, that the value of 'select-all' will control the functionality, in the meantime I also lose the ability to pass in primitive string values as an array of options, because I cannot distinguish which values are real options generated elsewhere, and which one is the 'select-all' generated by the component itself...but this sacrifice wasn't too big to make)
3. In onChange handler, I check explicitly, if the current selection of values contains select-all --> if it does, I execute the logic I need when "selecting all" (in other words --> I eventually set all options to be rendered in the value array)

[flora8984461]

I've somehow missed the filterOptions prop completely, which seems to indeed help me on this matter...although it doesn't free me from the additional logic needed to exclude the "select-all" option.
....and just figured, in my case it's just the same to include the "select all" in the original options list :D...
But it'll do.

Hi, thank you for your opening this, I am also encountering the same issue. How you solve it when selecting all, the other selections are all selected?
Thanks for your help!

Not quite sure if it was this that you asked, but what I basically ended up with was something like this:

1. I provide an array of objects with fixed structure to options, structure being { label: 'Some option label', value: 'the-value-of-the-option' }
2. In filterOptions I just return the filtered values, accomodating following object on top of the list: { label: 'Select all', value: 'select-all' } (so I'm deciding here, that the value of 'select-all' will control the functionality, in the meantime I also lose the ability to pass in primitive string values as an array of options, because I cannot distinguish which values are real options generated elsewhere, and which one is the 'select-all' generated by the component itself...but this sacrifice wasn't too big to make)
3. In onChange handler, I check explicitly, if the current selection of values contains select-all --> if it does, I execute the logic I need when "selecting all" (in other words --> I eventually set all options to be rendered in the value array)

Thanks a lot for your quick response. I am wondering if the code below is like what you mentioned?

  const filterOptions = (options) => {
    return [{ label: 'Select all', value: 'Select all' }, ...options]
  }

And for handle onChange, I am using:

  const handleOnChange = (event, value) => {

    if ( value.indexOf({ label: 'Select all', value: 'Select all' }) ) {

      setValueSelected(options)   // I have const[valueSelected, setValueSelected]=useState([])

    }
    else {
      setValueSelected(value)
    }
  }

And I am using Autocomplete with props:

    <Autocomplete
      id="someId"
      multiple
      options={options}
      filterOptions={filterOptions}
      disableCloseOnSelect
      getOptionLabel={(option) => option.label}
      getOptionSelected={(option, value) => option.value=== value.value}
      onChange={handleOnChange}
      value={valueSelected}
      renderOption={(option, { selected }) => (
        <React.Fragment>
          <Checkbox
            icon={Icon}
            checkedIcon={CheckedIcon}
            style={{ marginRight: 8 }}
            checked={selected}
          />
          {option.label}
        </React.Fragment>
      )}
      renderInput={(params) => (
        <TextField {...params} variant="outlined" placeholder="sometext" />
      )}
    />

But I am also having an issue with when select All, it gives the warning:

The value provided to Autocomplete is invalid.
None of the options match with `{"label":"Select all","value":"Select all"}`.
You can use the `getOptionSelected` prop to customize the equality test.

While I am already using getOptionSelected and I also tried to replace option with filterOptions, but I still have this warning. Thus, I cannot go into my if logic in handleOnChange.

Am I doing something wrong? Or is this the sacrifice you mentioned?

I am also having a question that how can I make the checkbox also showing I am selecting all, and when I uncheck Select all, the items are all not selected?

Thanks again for your help.

[vileppanen]

I revamped the demo in the initial issue description a bit to inhabit the usage of filterOptions (it lacks the "always on top floating" styling). Here's how I've setup the Autocomplete.

The filterOptions prop expects a function that takes (options, params) arguments --> the values need to be filtered by calling a function created by createFilterOptions before returning, like this:

const filter = createFilterOptions();
const filterOptions = (options, params) => {
   const filtered = filter(options, params);
   return [{ label: 'Select all', value: "Select all" }, ...filtered];
}

For the question how to control the "select-all" checkbox state, I just check it separately in the optionRenderer using the allSelected state variable, which is set in every render by comparing the selected values count agains available options count:

const optionRenderer = (option, { selected }) => {
    const selectAllProps =
      option.value === "select-all" // To control the state of 'select-all' checkbox
        ? { checked: allSelected }
        : {};
    return (
      <>
        <Checkbox
          color="primary"
          icon={<CheckBoxOutlineBlankIcon fontSize="small" />}
          checkedIcon={<CheckBoxIcon fontSize="small" />}
          style={{ marginRight: 8 }}
          checked={selected}
          {...selectAllProps}
        />
        {getOptionLabel(option)}
      </>
    );
  };

I remember bumping few times to the same warning you describe, but in my case it was suppressed via getOptionSelected setup, similar as yours. Hard to say what could cause it without seeing the full setup 🤷

[flora8984461]

@vileppanen That works really nice. I was at wrong track, thank you very much.

[flora8984461]

I made some adjustmentsto make it more suitable for me to use. Thanks again for your help. And I made it to leave the dropdown empty when no options, since it keeps selecting "Select All" when no options.

My getOptionSelected is the same settings as yours. When making selections it won't give the warning, but when I submit the form, it still gives None of the options match with ... warning.
No idea what causes it.

[WilliamZimmermann]

I could improve the Select All option getting off the "Select All" checkbox from the options list and putting it on the PopperComponent option. It's more clean. However, I got some problems and I would like a help to solve it and have a full functional component:

1. When I scroll down and select (let's say) the last option on the list, the scroll up to the top;
2. Let's suppose we "Select All". All works fine. We click outside the component to close the list. We click again to open the list. If now I try to to "Select All", the component interprets that I'm clicking out of the component and closes it...

Could anyone help me with it?

CODE SANDBOX LINK: https://codesandbox.io/s/checkboxestags-material-demo-forked-5b0pt