Checkbox

The “Checkbox” attribute stores a boolean value (0 or 1). Typical use cases:

• Publication status of a record (active/inactive)

• Yes/No fields (e.g. “Featured”, “Show on homepage”)

• Binary state values such as “Available”, “Subscribed”, etc.

The stored value in the database is '1' (active) or '' (empty = inactive). In the backend, the attribute appears as a checkbox widget. When the publication option is enabled, an additional toggle button (“eye icon”) is displayed in the record list.

See also

For multilingual MetaModels, the attribute Translated Checkbox is available.

Installation

The attribute is installed via the Contao Manager or Composer:

composer require metamodels/attribute_checkbox

Settings when Creating the Attribute

In addition to the general attribute settings (name, column name, description, override variants), the checkbox attribute offers the following specific options:

Option	Description
Toggle icon	If this option is set, an additional icon (“eye”) is added to the backend list view. This allows the publication status of a record to be toggled directly with a click. The column name published is typically used for this purpose. The actual filtering of published records in the frontend must be configured separately via a filter set with the “Checkbox status” filter rule.
Inverted display option	Reverses the toggle status of the icon: an enabled checkbox (value 1) then shows the inactive symbol, a disabled one shows the active symbol. Useful for example for a “Hide” field analogous to the Contao content element.
Custom icon	Enables the selection of custom icons for the backend list view. If this option is set, two additional fields appear: Icon active — Icon displayed when value is 1 (select image file) Icon inactive — Icon displayed when value is empty (select image file) Supported formats: jpg, jpeg, gif, png, tif, tiff, svg.

Settings in Render Settings

The checkbox attribute has no specific render settings. In the attribute list of a render setting, the usual options are available:

Option	Description
Template	Selection of a custom template for the output of the checkbox value. If no template is specified, the output is as plain text (1 when active or '' when inactive). Primarily for the list display in the backend, the template mm_attr_checkbox_icon displays the status with UTF-8 icons as ☐ or ☑ (from MM 2.4).
CSS class	Optional CSS class added to the output element.

Settings in the Input Form

When the checkbox attribute is added to an input form, the following options are available:

Display

Option	Description
Backend class	CSS classes for the display of the field in the backend form (e.g. w50 for half width, cbx m12 for checkbox-typical spacing).
Template for backend	Selection of a custom widget template for the backend form.
Template for frontend	Selection of a custom widget template for frontend editing (only available if the “Frontend Editing” extension is installed).

Functions

Option	Description
Required field	Makes the field a required field (rarely useful for checkboxes, since an unchecked box already corresponds to a defined value).
Submit on change	The input form is reloaded via Ajax as soon as the checkbox is toggled (submitOnChange). The data is not yet saved at this point.

Overview (backend filter)

Option	Description
Filterable	The attribute is available in the backend as a filter criterion.

Filter Rules

The checkbox attribute can be used with the following filter rules:

Filter rule	Note
Checkbox status	Checks whether the checkbox value equals 1. Typically used for publication control. The filter rule offers two additional options: Allow override — A URL parameter can override the filter rule (e.g. for preview links). Do not use filter in frontend preview — The filter rule is skipped when a backend user uses the Contao frontend preview.
Simple lookup	Filters by a specific checkbox value via a URL parameter; useful when visitors should be able to filter by active/inactive themselves.

Special Functions

Publication status (toggle icon)

When “Toggle icon” is active, MetaModels registers a toggle operation in the backend list view. Clicking the icon switches the record’s value directly between 1 and '' without having to open the edit form. Filtering published records in the frontend must be done via a separate filter set with the “Checkbox status” filter rule (package filter_checkbox).

Inverted mode

The “Inverted display option” only reverses the display of the icon — the stored value remains unchanged (1 = active, '' = inactive). This is useful when the semantics of a field are formulated in reverse (e.g. “Hidden” instead of “Visible”) analogous to the Contao content element.

Database storage

The value is stored as char(1) NOT NULL default '': '1' means active, '' (empty string) means inactive.