Grouping in React MultiSelect component

18 May 2022 / 3 minutes to read

The MultiSelect supports wrapping nested elements into a group based on different categories. The category of each list item can be mapped through the groupBy field in the data table. The group header is displayed both as inline and fixed headers. The fixed group header content is updated dynamically on scrolling the popup list with its category value.

In the following sample, vegetables are grouped according on its category using groupBy field.

Source

Preview

index.jsx

index.html

index.tsx

import { MultiSelectComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
export default class App extends React.Component {
    constructor() {
        super(...arguments);
        // define the data with category
        this.vegetableData = [
            { vegetable: 'Cabbage', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item1' },
            { vegetable: 'Spinach', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item2' },
            { vegetable: 'Wheat grass', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item3' },
            { vegetable: 'Yarrow', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item4' },
            { vegetable: 'Pumpkins', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item5' },
            { vegetable: 'Chickpea', category: 'Beans', id: 'item6' },
            { vegetable: 'Green bean', category: 'Beans', id: 'item7' },
            { vegetable: 'Horse gram', category: 'Beans', id: 'item8' },
            { vegetable: 'Garlic', category: 'Bulb and Stem', id: 'item9' },
            { vegetable: 'Nopal', category: 'Bulb and Stem', id: 'item10' },
            { vegetable: 'Onion', category: 'Bulb and Stem', id: 'item11' }
        ];
        // map the groupBy field with category column
        this.fields = { groupBy: 'category', text: 'vegetable', value: 'id' };
    }
    render() {
        return (
        // specifies the tag for render the MultiSelect component
        <MultiSelectComponent id="mtselement" popupHeight='200px' fields={this.fields} dataSource={this.vegetableData} placeholder="Select a vegetable"/>);
    }
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Syncfusion React MultiSelect</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Essential JS 2 for React Components" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/20.1.55/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/20.1.55/ej2-react-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/20.1.55/ej2-react-dropdowns/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/20.1.55/ej2-react-buttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
    <style>
        #loader {
            color: #008cff;
            height: 40px;
            left: 45%;
            position: absolute;
            top: 45%;
            width: 30%;
        }
    </style>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='sample' style="margin: 20px auto 0; width:250px;">
        <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

import { MultiSelectComponent } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-dropdowns';
import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

export default class App extends React.Component<{}, {}> {
    // define the data with category
    private vegetableData: { [key: string]: Object }[] = [
        { vegetable: 'Cabbage', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item1' },
        { vegetable: 'Spinach', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item2' },
        { vegetable: 'Wheat grass', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item3' },
        { vegetable: 'Yarrow', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item4' },
        { vegetable: 'Pumpkins', category: 'Leafy and Salad', id: 'item5' },
        { vegetable: 'Chickpea', category: 'Beans', id: 'item6' },
        { vegetable: 'Green bean', category: 'Beans', id: 'item7' },
        { vegetable: 'Horse gram', category: 'Beans', id: 'item8' },
        { vegetable: 'Garlic', category: 'Bulb and Stem', id: 'item9' },
        { vegetable: 'Nopal', category: 'Bulb and Stem', id: 'item10' },
        { vegetable: 'Onion', category: 'Bulb and Stem', id: 'item11' }
    ];

    // map the groupBy field with category column
    private fields: object = { groupBy: 'category', text: 'vegetable', value: 'id' };

    public render() {
        return (
             // specifies the tag for render the MultiSelect component
            <MultiSelectComponent id="mtselement" popupHeight='200px' fields={this.fields} dataSource={this.vegetableData} placeholder="Select a vegetable" />
        );
    }
}
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('sample'));

Customization

The grouping header is also provided with customization option. This allows custom designing using the groupTemplate property for both inline and fixed headers.

Grouping with CheckBox

Previously, there is no checkbox for group headers. Now, this feature allow to render checkbox in group header to select the group items in single selection. You can enable this feature by setting enableGroupCheckBox property value as true and mode property as CheckBox.

Inject the CheckBoxSelection module in the MultiSelect to use the checkbox.