Question

I don’t know what the specific name to this kind of form controller is (if there even is one), but basically I want to change radio elements like so;

<input type="radio" name="size" value="S" id="size_S" />
  <label for="size_S">S</label>
<input type="radio" name="size" value="M" id="size_M" />
  <label for="size_M">M</label>
<input type="radio" name="size" value="L" id="size_L" />
  <label for="size_L">L</label>

…into stylized links, the checked of which has a special class. For an example, I’d list the size selection element on Macys.com.

How can I turn the radios into these kinds of box links? Is there a library or plug-in that already does this?

I can modify the DOM, but the elements need to be radio buttons for the convenience of non-JS users.

Answer 1

You can pretty much reuse the standard form elements. With js enabled, hide the radio buttons, style the labels, and bind a click event to add the active/selected class. Clicking a label will still select the underlying radiobutton.

Example jsFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/Y6BzY/

JS

$('input[type="radio"], label').addClass('js');

$('label').on('click', function() {
    $('label').removeClass('active');
    $(this).addClass('active');
});

CSS

input[type="radio"].js {
    display: none;
}

label.js {
    display: block;
    float: left;
    margin-right: 5px;
    border: 1px solid black;
    padding: 4px;
    cursor: pointer;
}

label.js.active {
    border: 1px solid blue;
    color: blue;
}