Morningstar Design System

Search Fields

Variations Design Guidelines Code Reference Accessibility

Search Fields

  • HTML/CSS Available
  • Web Component Beta
  • Last Updated

    2.14.0

Search fields allow a user to type in exactly what they’re looking for.

Variations Design Guidelines Code Reference Accessibility

Variations

Primary

Use when search is a major function of a page.

Default
Filled
Hover
Focus
Default
Filled
Hover
Focus
HTML Web Component 
<div class="mds-search-field " role="search">
    <input type="text" class="mds-search-field__input" aria-label="Search" placeholder="Search for Security">
    <svg class="mds-icon mds-search-field__search-icon" aria-hidden="true">
        <use xlink:href="/icons/mds.svg#search--s">
        </use>
    </svg>
    <span class="mds-search-field__input-focus-outline"></span>
</div>
<mds-search-field placeholder="Search for Security"></mds-search-field>
Disabled
Disabled
HTML Web Component 
<div class="mds-search-field " role="search">
    <input type="text" class="mds-search-field__input" aria-label="Search" placeholder="Search for Security" disabled>
    <svg class="mds-icon mds-search-field__search-icon" aria-hidden="true">
        <use xlink:href="/icons/mds.svg#search--s">
        </use>
    </svg>
    <span class="mds-search-field__input-focus-outline"></span>
</div>
<mds-search-field placeholder="Search for Security" disabled></mds-search-field>

Secondary

Use in most cases, when search is a supplemental function on a page.

Default
Filled
Hover
Focus
Default
Filled
Hover
Focus
HTML Web Component 
<div class="mds-search-field mds-search-field--secondary" role="search">
    <input type="text" class="mds-search-field__input" aria-label="Search" placeholder="Search for Security">
    <svg class="mds-icon mds-search-field__search-icon" aria-hidden="true">
        <use xlink:href="/icons/mds.svg#search--s">
        </use>
    </svg>
    <span class="mds-search-field__input-focus-outline"></span>
</div>
<mds-search-field variation="secondary" placeholder="Search for Security"></mds-search-field>
Disabled
Disabled
HTML Web Component 
<div class="mds-search-field mds-search-field--secondary" role="search">
    <input type="text" class="mds-search-field__input" aria-label="Search" placeholder="Search for Security" disabled>
    <svg class="mds-icon mds-search-field__search-icon" aria-hidden="true">
        <use xlink:href="/icons/mds.svg#search--s">
        </use>
    </svg>
    <span class="mds-search-field__input-focus-outline"></span>
</div>
<mds-search-field variation="secondary" placeholder="Search for Security" disabled></mds-search-field>

Sizing

Sizing affects search field size, text size, icon size, and internal spacing. The default size is medium, and you can use modifier classes or props to make the search field smaller or larger.

Small
Medium (Default)
Large
Small
Medium (Default)
Large
HTML Web Component 
<div class="mds-search-field mds-search-field--secondary mds-search-field--small" role="search">
    <input type="text" class="mds-search-field__input" aria-label="Search" placeholder="Search for Security">
    <svg class="mds-icon mds-search-field__search-icon" aria-hidden="true">
        <use xlink:href="/icons/mds.svg#search--s">
        </use>
    </svg>
    <span class="mds-search-field__input-focus-outline"></span>
</div>
<mds-search-field variation="secondary" size="small" placeholder="Search for Security"></mds-search-field>

Use When

  • Searching for content in an entire app or site.
  • Searching within and filtering down a large List Group of options.
  • Searching within a more specific set of data, i.e., Morningstar Research or Morningstar Reports.

Visual Language

Global search functionality on Morningstar.com.
Component search functionality on Morningstar Developer.
Global search functionality on Morningstar Credit Ratings.
Searching for reports inside Direct Cloud.
Searching within Research Portal inside Direct Cloud.
Searching within column sets Menu inside Direct Cloud.
  • Use placeholder text to provide additional context around the data being searched. For example, “Search for Morningstar Reports”.

Behaviors

  • When a user enters text in the field, a remove icon, remove--s, allows the user to clear their entry. For live search, clicking the remove icon also clears the results of the current search.
  • In IE11, search field placeholder text is cleared on focus. This is default IE11 behavior and a known issue, teams are still encouraged to use search fields in production.

Editorial

  • Briefly describe what the user might search for in the placeholder text, if space permits. For example, “Search for ETFs, Research, and Reports”.
  • If there’s not enough space to express a complete thought, use “Search…”
  • Use “Search for” not “Search by”—reserve “by” for filtering, i.e., “Filter by sector”.
  • Use title case and don't end sentences with periods.
  • Show searched term(s) when showing results.

CSS

Class References

Class
Applies to
Outcome

mds-search-field--secondary

mds-search-field

Renders the search field using the secondary style.

mds-search-field--small

mds-search-field

Adjusts styling to render a small search field.

mds-search-field--large

mds-search-field

Adjusts styling to render a large search field.

Web Component

Props

Prop
Type
Validation
Default
Description

ariaLabel

String

Required

Search

Sets the aria-label for the search field.

class

String

—

—

A space-separated list of class names that will be appended to the default mds-search-field class.

disabled

Boolean

—

false

If true, sets the disabled attribute on the button, rendering it non-interactive, and applies disabled styling.

id

String

—

—

The id attribute for the HTML element.

placeholder

String

—

Search...

Adds placeholder text.

value

String

—

—

Text value for the search field. If omitted, the placeholder will be displayed by default.

size

String

One of: small, medium, large

medium

Alters the size of the search field.

variation

String

One of: primary, secondary

primary

Sets the search field variation.
  • Use kebab-case when setting props in HTML. For example, ariaLabel would be written as aria-label.

Methods

Method Name
Description

clear()

Removes the value from the search field.

Usage Examples

Setting variation and size via props:

<mds-search-field variation="secondary" size="small"></mds-search-field>

Setting placeholder and value via props:

<mds-search-field placeholder="Custom Placeholder Text" value="Predefined Value"></mds-search-field>

Implementation

  • Use the aria-label attribute to define the text that assistive technology uses to describe the search field element. By default it is set to “Search”.

Best Practices

  • Search fields should always use role="search".