Possibly unexpected behaviour if you provide text but no value for select items #3440
Assignees
Labels
breaking change
🐛 bug
Something isn't working the way it should (including incorrect wording in documentation)
consistency
nunjucks
select
Milestone
Comments
oscarduignan
added
awaiting triage
querkmachine
added
select
nunjucks
consistency
and removed
awaiting triage
36degrees
added a commit
that referenced
this issue
Jun 9, 2023
In HTML, if you omit the `value` attribute from an `<option>`the value defaults to the text contained inside the element [1]. However if you omit the value from an option when using the `govukSelect` macro, we currently include an empty value attribute on the `<option>` element. This would mean that when submitting a form using a select with options with no value set, the value submitted would be the empty string. Instead, omit the `value` attribute if no `value` option has been provided. We then mimic the default HTML behaviour, as the option value will then naturally fall back to the text content. We still need to ensure that the `value` attribute is included when the value option is passed but has a falsey value (like an empty string, 0, or boolean false). Fixes #3440. [1]: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/form-elements.html#the-option-element:~:text=The%20value%20attribute%20provides%20a%20value%20for%20element.%20The%20value%20of%20an%20option%20element%20is%20the%20value%20of%20the%20value%20content%20attribute%2C%20if%20there%20is%20one%2C%20or%2C%20if%20there%20is%20not%2C%20the%20value%20of%20the%20element%27s%20text%20IDL%20attribute.
36degrees
added a commit
that referenced
this issue
Jun 9, 2023
In HTML, if you omit the `value` attribute from an `<option>`the value defaults to the text contained inside the element [1]. However if you omit the value from an option when using the `govukSelect` macro, we currently include an empty value attribute on the `<option>` element. This would mean that when submitting a form using a select with options with no value set, the value submitted would be the empty string. Instead, omit the `value` attribute if no `value` option has been provided. We then mimic the default HTML behaviour, as the option value will then naturally fall back to the text content. We still need to ensure that the `value` attribute is included when the value option is passed but has a falsey value (like an empty string, 0, or boolean false). Fixes #3440. [1]: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/form-elements.html#the-option-element:~:text=The%20value%20attribute%20provides%20a%20value%20for%20element.%20The%20value%20of%20an%20option%20element%20is%20the%20value%20of%20the%20value%20content%20attribute%2C%20if%20there%20is%20one%2C%20or%2C%20if%20there%20is%20not%2C%20the%20value%20of%20the%20element%27s%20text%20IDL%20attribute.
colinrotherham
pushed a commit
that referenced
this issue
Jul 19, 2023
In HTML, if you omit the `value` attribute from an `<option>`the value defaults to the text contained inside the element [1]. However if you omit the value from an option when using the `govukSelect` macro, we currently include an empty value attribute on the `<option>` element. This would mean that when submitting a form using a select with options with no value set, the value submitted would be the empty string. Instead, omit the `value` attribute if no `value` option has been provided. We then mimic the default HTML behaviour, as the option value will then naturally fall back to the text content. We still need to ensure that the `value` attribute is included when the value option is passed but has a falsey value (like an empty string, 0, or boolean false). Fixes #3440. [1]: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/form-elements.html#the-option-element:~:text=The%20value%20attribute%20provides%20a%20value%20for%20element.%20The%20value%20of%20an%20option%20element%20is%20the%20value%20of%20the%20value%20content%20attribute%2C%20if%20there%20is%20one%2C%20or%2C%20if%20there%20is%20not%2C%20the%20value%20of%20the%20element%27s%20text%20IDL%20attribute.
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
Description of the issue
possible foot gun when using govukSelect component and not passing an explicit value to your select items
https://ukgovernmentdigital.slack.com/archives/C6DMEH5R6/p1680092442731649
alphagov/govuk-design-system-backlog#60
Steps to reproduce the issue
pass only the text parameter to select items when using govukSelect
Actual vs expected behaviour
If you don't supply a value to a select option
<option>text</option>then the value of that form field will be "text"However, with govukSelect, if you don't supply a value for one of the select items then you'll get an empty value attribute
<option value="">text</option>which will cause the value of that form field to (maybe unexpectedly) be an empty string ""I can see the value of being able to pass an empty string as a value, but it seems like it should be an explicit choice rather than the default
Environment (where applicable)
N/A
The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered: