style bootstrap radio buttons to look like normal buttons with form validation

Question

I have these two radio buttons that require the user to select one of the two radio buttons. I have been trying to figure out how to style the radio buttons to look more like regular buttons. How can i style these radio buttons to look like normal buttons but keep the radio button behavior and the form validation as well?

Also I am using bootstrap for most of my styling in case that was not clear.

// Example starter JavaScript for disabling form submissions if there are invalid fields
(function() {
  'use strict';
  window.addEventListener('load', function() {
    // Fetch all the forms we want to apply custom Bootstrap validation styles to
    var forms = document.getElementsByClassName('needs-validation');
    // Loop over them and prevent submission
    var validation = Array.prototype.filter.call(forms, function(form) {
      form.addEventListener('submit', function(event) {
        if (form.checkValidity() === false) {
          event.preventDefault();
          event.stopPropagation();
        }
        form.classList.add('was-validated');
      }, false);
    });
  }, false);
})();

<head>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-Gn5384xqQ1aoWXA+058RXPxPg6fy4IWvTNh0E263XmFcJlSAwiGgFAW/dAiS6JXm" crossorigin="anonymous">
</head>


<form class="needs-validation" novalidate>
  <div class="form-group">
    <div class="form-check">
      <input class="form-check-input" type="radio" name="choice" id="emailConsentRadio" value="save" required>
      <label class="form-check-label btn btn-outline-primary" for="save">
                            save
                        </label>
    </div>
    <div class="form-check">
      <input class="form-check-input" type="radio" name="choice" id="emailConsentRadio" value="cancel" required>
      <label class="form-check-label btn btn-outline-danger" for="cancel">
                            cancel
                        </label>
      <div class="invalid-feedback">
        select one option
      </div>
    </div>

  </div>
  <button type="submit" name="signup_signup" class="btn btn-primary btn-block" aria-describedby="signup_notes">Submit</button>
</form>

There are a couple of good ideas here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16242980/making-radio-buttons-look-like-buttons-instead — Cat, Apr 16 '19 at 19:13

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 16 '19 at 19:34

Things are a bit complicated since you want to keep the radiobutton behaviour. If we simply hide the regular radio buttons, there's no way for the user to select any of them.

So here's a cumbersome workaround: First, give the regular radio buttons and your text labels an unique id:

<input class="form-check-input" type="radio" name="choice" id="emailConsentRadioA" value="save" required>
<label class="form-check-label btn btn-outline-primary" for="save" id="saveButton">
<input class="form-check-input" type="radio" name="choice" id="emailConsentRadioB" value="cancel" required>
<label class="form-check-label btn btn-outline-danger" for="cancel" id="cancelButton">

Next, hide the regular radio buttons:

document.getElementById("emailConsentRadioB").style.visibility="hidden";
document.getElementById("emailConsentRadioA").style.visibility="hidden";

Afterwards add click event listeners to your bootstrap style buttons to change it's style to a filled button once clicked and set the checked property of it's associated regular radio button to checked. At the same time do the opposite for the other button:

function cancelPressed(e)
{
document.getElementById("saveButton").className="form-check-label btn btn-outline-primary";
document.getElementById(e.target.id).className="form-check-label btn btn-danger";
document.getElementById("emailConsentRadioB").checked=true;
}
function savePressed(e)
{
document.getElementById("cancelButton").className="form-check-label btn btn-outline-danger";
document.getElementById(e.target.id).className="form-check-label btn btn-primary";
document.getElementById("emailConsentRadioA").checked=true;
}
document.getElementById("saveButton").addEventListener("click",savePressed);
document.getElementById("cancelButton").addEventListener("click",cancelPressed);

Here's the full example:

// Example starter JavaScript for disabling form submissions if there are invalid fields
(function() {
  'use strict';
  window.addEventListener('load', function() {
    // Fetch all the forms we want to apply custom Bootstrap validation styles to
    var forms = document.getElementsByClassName('needs-validation');
    // Loop over them and prevent submission
    var validation = Array.prototype.filter.call(forms, function(form) {
      form.addEventListener('submit', function(event) {
        if (form.checkValidity() === false) {
          event.preventDefault();
          event.stopPropagation();
        }
        form.classList.add('was-validated');
      }, false);
    });
  }, false);
})();

document.getElementById("emailConsentRadioB").style.visibility="hidden";
document.getElementById("emailConsentRadioA").style.visibility="hidden";
function cancelPressed(e)
{
document.getElementById("saveButton").className="form-check-label btn btn-outline-primary";
document.getElementById(e.target.id).className="form-check-label btn btn-danger";
document.getElementById("emailConsentRadioB").checked=true;
}
function savePressed(e)
{
document.getElementById("cancelButton").className="form-check-label btn btn-outline-danger";
document.getElementById(e.target.id).className="form-check-label btn btn-primary";
document.getElementById("emailConsentRadioA").checked=true;
}
document.getElementById("saveButton").addEventListener("click",savePressed);
document.getElementById("cancelButton").addEventListener("click",cancelPressed);

<head>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-Gn5384xqQ1aoWXA+058RXPxPg6fy4IWvTNh0E263XmFcJlSAwiGgFAW/dAiS6JXm" crossorigin="anonymous">
</head>


<form class="needs-validation" novalidate>
  <div class="form-group">
    <div class="form-check">
      <input class="form-check-input" type="radio" name="choice" id="emailConsentRadioA" value="save" required>
      <label class="form-check-label btn btn-outline-primary" for="save" id="saveButton">
                            save
                        </label>
    </div>
    <div class="form-check">
      <input class="form-check-input" type="radio" name="choice" id="emailConsentRadioB" value="cancel" required>
      <label class="form-check-label btn btn-outline-danger" for="cancel" id="cancelButton">
                            cancel
                        </label>
      <div class="invalid-feedback">
        select one option
      </div>
    </div>

  </div>
  <button type="submit" name="signup_signup" class="btn btn-primary btn-block" aria-describedby="signup_notes">Submit</button>
</form>

Get Off My Lawn · Answer 2 · 2019-04-16T19:16:22.713

You can put the radio inside the label and remove the for attribute, then you can use this css:

label > [type=radio] { display: none }

The radio will still act as a radio button, it just won't be visible.

// Example starter JavaScript for disabling form submissions if there are invalid fields
(function() {
  'use strict';
  window.addEventListener('load', function() {
    // Fetch all the forms we want to apply custom Bootstrap validation styles to
    var forms = document.getElementsByClassName('needs-validation');
    // Loop over them and prevent submission
    var validation = Array.prototype.filter.call(forms, function(form) {
      form.addEventListener('submit', function(event) {
        if (form.checkValidity() === false) {
          event.preventDefault();
          event.stopPropagation();
        }
        form.classList.add('was-validated');
      }, false);
    });
  }, false);
})();

label > [type=radio] { display: none }

<head>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-Gn5384xqQ1aoWXA+058RXPxPg6fy4IWvTNh0E263XmFcJlSAwiGgFAW/dAiS6JXm" crossorigin="anonymous">
</head>


<form class="needs-validation" novalidate>
  <div class="form-group">
    <div class="form-check">
      <label class="form-check-label btn btn-outline-primary">
        <input class="form-check-input" type="radio" name="choice" id="emailConsentRadio" value="save" required>
                            save
                        </label>
    </div>
    <div class="form-check">
      <label class="form-check-label btn btn-outline-danger">
        <input class="form-check-input" type="radio" name="choice" id="emailConsentRadio" value="cancel" required>
                            cancel
                        </label>
      <div class="invalid-feedback">
        select one option
      </div>
    </div>

  </div>
  <button type="submit" name="signup_signup" class="btn btn-primary btn-block" aria-describedby="signup_notes">Submit</button>
</form>

This does not seem to show the invalid-feedback and the buttons dont become filled when the button is clicked — Max Powers, Apr 16 '19 at 19:11

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 19:57

there is another way of solving the problem that does not include writing any Javascript!

<form class="needs-validation">
 <div class="btn-group btn-group-toggle" data-toggle="buttons">
  <label class="btn btn-outline-primary">
    <input type="radio" name="area" autocomplete="off" value="save">save
  </label>
  <label class="btn btn-outline-danger">
   <input type="radio" name="area" autocomplete="off" value="smoking">cancel
  </label>
 </div>
</form>

Try to play around with this to add validation, hope it helps.

style bootstrap radio buttons to look like normal buttons with form validation

3 Answers3