Floating Form Labels (Demo)

Floating Form Labels takes this concept from Matt D. Smit and wraps it into an easy to use jQuery plugin written by jChris85 and I. Take a look at this blog post by Brad Frost to understand why this is essential when dealing with inline form labels.

But there are some other code snippets out there that do the same thing. Why do I need another one?

Floating Form Labels ...

• Is UMD capable (can be loaded with any module loader)
• Supports the placeholder attribute
• Is markup agnostic (works with nearly every markup)
• Works with input and textarea elements

Installation

We recommend using a package manager to install Floating Form Labels as a dependency of your project. Please read the docs of the respective package manager if you don't know how to use it.

• npm: npm install floating-form-labels
• Bower: bower install floating-form-labels

You can add --save as a parameter if you want to add the plugin into your package.json or bower.json.

Alternatively, you can download the plugin directly from GitHub, unzip the folder and copy the file floating-form-labels/dist/floatingFormLabels.min.js into your project.

Usage

HTML

First group your labels and inputs into a container. These containers are the starting point for the JavaScript. We recommend to give them a unique class name. The plugin looks for a class named ffl-wrapper by default but you can change that if you wish.

It's a good idea to add a unique class to your labels as well to avoid bugs if for example error messages are be added by validation or the like. By default we are looking for a label named ffl-label.

<div class="ffl-wrapper">
    <label class="ffl-label" for="input-1">Label for field 1</label>
    <input id="input-1" type="text">
</div>
<div class="ffl-wrapper">
    <label class="ffl-label" for="input-2">Label for field 2</label>
    <input id="input-2" type="text">
</div>

JavaScript

Next you have to load the file floating-form-labels/dist/floatingFormLabels.min.js into your project and make sure that jQuery is ready to use. You can do this by adding another script tag to your DOM or by using a module loader. Then you have to call the plugin with a selector that matches your wrapping containers.

$('.ffl-wrapper').floatingFormLabels();

Options

Option	Value	Default	Description
label	String	'.ffl-label'	The selector string to find the label that will be floated inside your wrapping container.
formElements	String	'input, textarea'	The form elements that Floating Form Labels will watch.
floatedClass	String	'ffl-floated'	The class that is added to the DOM when a label becomes floated.

Events

The following events are fired on your wrapping container:

Event	Returns	Description
init.ffl	Instance of plugin	Fires when Floating Form Labels is ready.
toggle.ffl	Instance of plugin	Fires on every interaction with the input.

Examples

If you don't have the control of your markup and want to add this plugin to some custom html.

$('.your-custom-wrapper').floatingFormLabels({
    label: 'label',
    floatedClass: 'postponed'
});

If you want to check if a label is floated programmatically you can use events for this.

$('label#label-for-input-1').on('toggle.ffl', function (event, ffl) {
    // log out the current state of the label
    console.log(ffl.floated);
});

Sass

By default Floating Form Labels just triggers some classes in the DOM. To see the desired effect you have to insert some CSS. You can write that for yourself or you can include our handy Sass mixin that will do most of the work for you. Import the file floating-form-labels/scss/floating-form-labels.scss into your project and then include our mixin inside the selector of the wrapping container.

.ffl-wrapper {
    @include floating-form-labels($position-top, $reserved-space);
}

As you can see there are two parameters our mixin expects. The first one ($position-top) is used to move the label from its regular position above the input element. The second one ($reserved-space) is used to create a padding-top inside the wrapper to reserve the space for the label to get floated.

Why didn't you choose a better way to center the label above the input?

With a normal CSS centering solution you could get in trouble when more markup is added into your wrapper container e.g. by a validation plugin. Or in the case of textareas you don't want to have a true centering. This is why you have to move the labels down using a static parameter. The $reserved-space is necessary so the form doesn't jump when a label becomes floated. We didn't want to negatively position the labels because this could cause some trouble with foregoing form elements.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
$ffl-label	".ffl-label"	The selector string to find the label that will be floated inside your wrapping container.
$ffl-floatedClass	".ffl-floated	The class that is added by the JavaScript.
$ffl-transition-duration	200ms
$ffl-transition-easing	ease

Example

You can change the markup to your own needs or speed up the transition simply by setting two variables.

$ffl-label: ".my-own-label-class";
$ffl-transition-duration: 100ms;

.your-custom-wrapper {
    @include floating-form-labels(0.7rem, 0.5rem);
}

FAQ

I've got some ajax content in my form. Is there an update method to init the plugin for this new fields?

You can simply call the plugin again after the ajax is done. The plugin won't get double initialized on the fields that are already present.

I have nested my input element inside the label to save the for attribute. Is this DOM structure also supported or do the input and the label elements need to be on the same level?

Yes this structure is also supported because Floating Form Label is markup agnostic. You only have to wrap the text of the label inside an element (e.g. a <span>) that can be positioned above the input. For example your markup could look like this:

<label class="ffl-wrapper">
    <span class="ffl-label">Label</span>
    <input type="text">
</label>