H84: Using a button with a select element to perform an action

The objective of this technique is to allow the user to control when an action is performed, rather than having the action occur as a side effect of choosing a value for the select element. The user may inspect the different values of the select element, or may accidentally choose the wrong value, without causing the action to occur. When the user is satisfied with their choice, they select the button to perform the action.

This is particularly important for users who are choosing the value of the select element via the keyboard, since navigating through the options of the select element changes the value of the control.

Examples

Example 1: A Calendar

A Web page lets the user choose any month of any year and display the calendar for that month. After the user has set the month and year, he displays the calendar by pressing the "Show" button. This example replies on client-side scripting to implement the action.

Example Code:


<label for="month">Month:</label>
<select name="month" id="month">
  <option value="1">January</option>
  <option value="2"> February</option>
  ...
  <option value="12">December</option>
</select> 
<label for="year">Year:</label>
<input type="text" name="year" id="year">
<input type="button" value="Show" onclick = "...">

Example 2: Choosing an action

A select element contains a list of possible actions. The action is not performed until the user presses the "Do it" button.

Example Code:


<form action="http://somesite.com/action" method="post">
  <label for="action">Options:</label>
  <select name="action" id="action">
    <option value="help">Help</option>
    <option value="reset">Reset</option>
    <option value="submit">Submit</option>
  </select> 
  <button type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">Do It </button>
</form>

Resources

Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.

Jukka Korpela: Navigational pulldown menus in HTML

Related Techniques

Tests

Procedure

For each select element/button element combination:

Check that focus (including keyboard focus) on an option in the select element does not result in any actions
Check that selecting the button performs the action associated with the current select value

Expected Results

All checks are true.