FreeForm Pro Composer State and Country field type how to show unselected?

Question

I am using FreeForm Pro (4.2.0) with EE2 (2.9.0).

We are using the "Composer" method of creating forms to generate the select input Country and State field types.

I am seeing "Afghanistan" and "Alabama" being selected by default (by virtue of them being listed first in the alphabet).

Is there a way to add a blank leading option something like:

 <option value="" selected>Please select...</option>

Having the first value in the list selected is not working well versus form validation.

Answer 1

Sorry, that is currently not available. I recommend submitting this as a Feature Request under the specific add-on category. It'll also give other users the option to vote up the feature request, and help us prioritize features to add in upcoming versions of this add-on. :) http://support.solspace.com/support/discussions

In the meantime, if you feel adventurous, you can add an empty "Please select..." option by going into /system/expressionengine/third_party/freeform/default_fields/freeform_ft.country_select.php, and finding the display_field() method (near line 94). In that general area you will find this line:

$countries = $this->get_countries();

Change that line to this:

$country_select_one[''] = 'Please select...';
$countries = $this->get_countries();
$countries = array_merge($country_select_one, $countries);

This will add an option with an empty value at the beginning of the country dropdown list.