Why can't radio buttons be "readonly"?

Question

I would like to show a radio button, have its value submitted, but depending on the circumstances, have it not editable. Disabled doesn't work, because it doesn't submit th value (or does it?), and it grays out the radio button. Readonly is really what I'm looking for, but for some mysterious reason it doesn't work.

Is there some weird trick I need to pull to get readonly to work as expected? Should I just do it in javascript instead?

Incidentally, does anyone know why readonly doesn't work in radio buttons, while it does work in other input tags? Is this one of those incomprehensible omissions in the HTML specs?

Answer 1

HTML Solution

You can disable it, and simply store its default value in a hidden field having the same name as the radio buttons (so your back-end logic need not change).
<input type='radio' name='val' value='oranges' disabled='disabled' />
<input type='hidden' name='val' value='oranges' />

Javascript Solution

You could simply respond to any click with an explicit request to uncheck the radio button itself.
<input type='radio' name='val' value='oranges' onclick='this.checked = false;' />

HTML/CSS Solution (Ugly Hack)

Using positioning in CSS, you could cover the buttons up with a transparent gif, making them unclickable.
<input type='radio' name='val' value='oranges' />
<img src='transparent.gif' class='positionOverRadio' />

Or you could simply go nuts and do all three ;) Your call.

Answer 2

This is the trick you can go with.

<input type="radio" name="name" onclick="this.checked = false;" />

Answer 3

Try the attribute "diasble", but I think the you won't get the value of the radio buttons. Or set images instead like: radio button option

Best Regards.

Answer 4

What about capturing an "On_click()" event in JS and checking it like here?:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33043

Answer 5

A fairly simple option would be to create a javascript function called on the form's "onsubmit" event to enable the radiobutton back so that it's value is posted with the rest of the form.
It does not seem to be an omission on HTML specs, but a design choice (a logical one, IMHO), a radiobutton can't be readonly as a button can't be, if you don't want to use it, then disable it.