Introduction

The Material Design Lite (MDL) icon-toggle component is an enhanced version of the standard HTML <input type="checkbox"> element. An icon-toggle consists of a user defined icon that indicates, by visual highlighting, a binary condition that will be set or unset when the user clicks or touches it. Like checkboxes, icon-toggles may appear individually or in groups, and can be selected and deselected individually.

Icon toggles, particularly as a replacement for certain checkboxes, can be a valuable feature in user interfaces, regardless of a site's content or function. Their design and use is therefore an important factor in the overall user experience. See the icon-toggle component's Material Design specifications page for details.

The icon-toggle component can have a more customized visual look than a standard checkbox, and may be initially or programmatically disabled.

To include an MDL icon-toggle component:

 1. Code a <label> element and give it a for attribute whose value is the unique id of the icon-toggle it will contain.

<label for="icon-toggle-1">
...
</label>

 2. Inside the label, code an <input> element and give it a type attribute whose value is "checkbox". Also give it an id attribute whose value matches the label's for attribute value.

<label for="icon-toggle-1">
  <input type="checkbox" id="icon-toggle-1">
</label>

 3. Also inside the label, after the input element, code an <i> element containing the icon-toggle's desired icon.

<label for="icon-toggle-1">
  <input type="checkbox" id="icon-toggle-1">
  <i class="mdl-icon-toggle__label material-icons">format_bold</i>
</label>

 4. Add one or more MDL classes, separated by spaces, to the label and input elements, using the class attribute.

<label class="mdl-icon-toggle mdl-js-icon-toggle mdl-js-ripple-effect" for="icon-toggle-1">
  <input type="checkbox" id="icon-toggle-1" class="mdl-icon-toggle__input">
  <i class="mdl-icon-toggle__label material-icons">format_bold</i>
</label>

The icon-toggle component is ready for use.

Example

An icon-toggle with a ripple click effect.

<label class="mdl-icon-toggle mdl-js-icon-toggle mdl-js-ripple-effect" for="icon-toggle-1">
  <input type="checkbox" id="icon-toggle-1" class="mdl-icon-toggle__input">
  <i class="mdl-icon-toggle__label material-icons">format_bold</i>
</label>

Configuration options

The MDL CSS classes apply various predefined visual and behavioral enhancements to the icon-toggle. The table below lists the available classes and their effects.

MDL classEffectRemarks
mdl-icon-toggleDefines label as an MDL componentRequired on label element
mdl-js-icon-toggleAssigns basic MDL behavior to labelRequired on label element
mdl-icon-toggle__inputApplies basic MDL behavior to icon-toggleRequired on input element (icon-toggle)
mdl-icon-toggle__labelApplies basic MDL behavior to captionRequired on i element (icon)
mdl-js-ripple-effectApplies ripple click effectOptional; goes on label element, not input element (icon-toggle)

Note: Disabled versions of all available input types are provided, and are invoked with the standard HTML boolean attribute disabled. <input type="checkbox" id="icon-toggle-5" class="mdl-icon-toggle__input" disabled> This attribute may be added or removed programmatically via scripting.