Fix broken Chosen dropdowns by replacing chosen-rails gem#2468
Merged
olleolleolle merged 1 commit intocodebar:masterfrom Feb 9, 2026
Merged
Fix broken Chosen dropdowns by replacing chosen-rails gem#2468olleolleolle merged 1 commit intocodebar:masterfrom
olleolleolle merged 1 commit intocodebar:masterfrom
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## Problem The chosen-rails gem's support-rails-8 branch has broken CoffeeScript compilation that causes Chosen dropdowns to appear empty despite having populated <option> elements in the DOM. The CoffeeScript comprehension syntax was compiling to broken JavaScript with uninitialized loop variables (`for (undefined; i < len; i++)`), causing loops to never execute. This affected both option parsing and DOM rendering. ## Root Cause CoffeeScript 1.12.2 (from 2016) combined with the support-rails-8 branch produces incorrect JavaScript compilation for comprehension loops. ## Solution Removed the chosen-rails gem dependency and replaced it with official pre-compiled Chosen v1.8.7 assets in vendor/: - vendor/assets/javascripts/chosen.jquery.js - vendor/assets/stylesheets/chosen.css - vendor/assets/images/chosen-sprite.png - vendor/assets/images/chosen-sprite@2x.png Updated application.js to require chosen.jquery from vendor instead of the gem. ## Benefits 1. Avoids CoffeeScript compilation issues entirely 2. Removes unnecessary gem dependency 3. Full control over Chosen version 4. Simpler asset pipeline (no gem-based asset resolution) ## Additional Fixes - Fixed JavaScript syntax error in application.js (chosen() options) - Fixed script loading order (jQuery before Bootstrap) - Added blank prompt option to members dropdown ## Testing Verified working: - Member directory dropdown (240 members) - Search/filter functionality - Keyboard navigation - Single deselect option ## Future Consideration This uses the jQuery-dependent Chosen library. Long-term, consider replacing with a modern JavaScript alternative without jQuery dependency.
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@olleolleolle, once this has merged and deployed, you can safely remove the |
olleolleolle
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Feb 9, 2026
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Thanks for all the good context in the PR, and for the fix!
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https://github.com/olleolleolle/chosen-rails/settings this is the fork I can remove when all is deployed and in prod. |
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@olleolleolle it's been deployed to production and is running fine :) |
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During some research on how we might get rid of
chosen, I noticed that we had broken the/admin/memberspage ... which someone had also mentioned on Slack not so long ago.The members directory appears empty
Problem
Admin pages with Chosen dropdowns (members directory, sponsors, invitation management) were broken - dropdowns appeared empty despite having data.
The root cause: the
chosen-railsgem'ssupport-rails-8branch has broken CoffeeScript compilation. CoffeeScript comprehension loops compile to invalid JavaScript:The loop variable
iis never initialized, so loops never execute. This broke:Solution
Replaced the broken gem with official pre-compiled Chosen v1.8.7 assets:
chosen-railsgem dependencyvendor/assets/Benefits
Testing
Verified on member directory page (
/admin/members):Additional Fixes
application.js(Chosen options)Fixes: Empty Chosen dropdowns on admin pages
Type: Bug fix