iPad and multi-select dropdowns without ctrl-click

July 16, 2010 9:38 PM

We recently purchased an iPad at the office for testing with our website. I'm trying to figure out how to operate a multi-select drop down on the thing. There's no control-click.. If it's not possible, is there an iPad specific workaround?

Just in case it matters I don't think it's actually just a simple HTML element but due to design concerns the functionality is a mix of javascript and css to display a stylized drop down list with the ability to select/deselect multiple options with the ctrl/shift keys.

posted by xorry to computers & internet (5 answers total)

Mobile Safari doesn't hide anything, so I'm pretty sure there's no control- or shift-click.

The Apple Safari Development Center is where you want to go, under "Safari for iOS".
posted by meowzilla at 10:13 PM on July 16, 2010

You might also try asking your question on Stack Overflow, which is a much better site than Ask Metafilter for programming questions.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:59 PM on July 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Real HTML multi-selects work fine, but funky javascript-based recreations of basic HTML features are much less likely to work on the iPad/iPhone due to the nature of the touch interface and the way "clicks" are handled in Mobile Safari. I'm pretty sure you're not missing anything, but that your site is going to need to be changed to either serve up a straight HTML select to iPad users or replace the js/css hacks with something compatible with Mobile Safari.

Pasting code snippets on Stack Overflow is a good idea if you need more specific advice.
posted by zachlipton at 11:27 PM on July 16, 2010

Very nice, thanks all!
posted by xorry at 5:46 AM on July 17, 2010

I expect simply converting a multiple select into a group of inputs of type checkbox will do what you want. If there are too many setting it inside a scrolling div should do it.
posted by artlung at 7:48 AM on July 18, 2010