Autocomplete Widget

Categories: Widgets

Autocomplete Widgetversion added: 1.8

Description: Autocomplete enables users to quickly find and select from a pre-populated list of values as they type, leveraging searching and filtering.

QuickNavExamples

Options

Methods

Events

By giving an Autocomplete field focus or entering something into it, the plugin starts searching for entries that match and displays a list of values to choose from. By entering more characters, the user can filter down the list to better matches.

This can be used to choose previously selected values, such as entering tags for articles or entering email addresses from an address book. Autocomplete can also be used to populate associated information, such as entering a city name and getting the zip code.

You can pull data in from a local or remote source: Local is good for small data sets, e.g., an address book with 50 entries; remote is necessary for big data sets, such as a database with hundreds or millions of entries to select from. To find out more about customizing the data soure, see the documentation for the source option.

Additional Notes:

  • This widget requires some functional CSS, otherwise it won't work. If you build a custom theme, use the widget's specific CSS file as a starting point.

Options

appendTo 

Type: Selector
Default: "body"
Which element the menu should be appended to. Override this when the autocomplete is inside a position: fixed element. Otherwise the popup menu would still scroll with the page.

autoFocus 

Type: Boolean
Default: false
If set to true the first item will automatically be focused when the menu is shown.

delay 

Type: Integer
Default: 300
The delay in milliseconds between when a keystroke occurs and when a search is performed. A zero-delay makes sense for local data (more responsive), but can produce a lot of load for remote data, while being less responsive.

disabled 

Type: Boolean
Default: false
Disables the autocomplete if set to true.

minLength 

Type: Integer
Default: 1
The minimum number of characters a user must type before a search is performed. Zero is useful for local data with just a few items, but a higher value should be used when a single character search could match a few thousand items.

position 

Type: Object
Default: { my: "left top", at: "left bottom", collision: "none" }
Identifies the position of the suggestions menu in relation to the associated input element. The of option defaults to the input element, but you can specify another element to position against. You can refer to the jQuery UI Position utility for more details about the various options.

source 

Type: Array or String or Function( Object request, Function response( Object data ) )
Default: none; must be specified
Defines the data to use, must be specified.

Independent of the variant you use, the label is always treated as text. If you want the label to be treated as html you can use Scott González' html extension. The demos all focus on different variations of the source option - look for one that matches your use case, and check out the code.

Multiple types supported:
  • Array: An array can be used for local data. There are two supported formats:
    • An array of strings: [ "Choice1", "Choice2" ]
    • An array of objects with label and value properties: [ { label: "Choice1", value: "value1" }, ... ]
    The label property is displayed in the suggestion menu. The value will be inserted into the input element when a user selects an item. If just one property is specified, it will be used for both, e.g., if you provide only value properties, the value will also be used as the label.
  • String: When a string is used, the Autocomplete plugin expects that string to point to a URL resource that will return JSON data. It can be on the same host or on a different one (must provide JSONP). The Autocomplete plugin does not filter the results, instead the request parameter term gets added to the URL, which the server-side script should use for filtering the results. The data itself can be in the same format as the local data described above.
  • Function: The third variation, a callback, provides the most flexibility and can be used to connect any data source to Autocomplete. The callback gets two arguments:
    • A request object, with a single term property, which refers to the value currently in the text input. For example, if the user enters "new yo" in a city field, the Autocomplete term will equal "new yo".
    • A response callback, which expects a single argument: the data to suggest to the user. This data should be filtered based on the provided term, and can be in any of the formats described above for simple local data. It's important when providing a custom source callback to handle errors during the request. You must always call the response callback even if you encounter an error. This ensures that the widget always has the correct state.

Methods

close()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Closes the Autocomplete menu. Useful in combination with the search method, to close the open menu.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the close method:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "close" );

destroy()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Removes the autocomplete functionality completely. This will return the element back to its pre-init state.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the destroy method:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "destroy" );

disable()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Disables the autocomplete.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the disable method:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "disable" );

enable()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Enables the autocomplete.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the enable method:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "enable" );

option( optionName )Returns: Object

Gets the value currently associated with the specified optionName.
  • optionName
    Type: String
    The name of the option to get.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option" );

option()Returns: PlainObject

Gets an object containing key/value pairs representing the current autocomplete options hash.
  • This signature does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option" );

option( optionName, value )Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Sets the value of the autocomplete option associated with the specified optionName.
  • optionName
    Type: String
    The name of the option to set.
  • value
    Type: Object
    A value to set for the option.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option" );

option( options )Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Sets one or more options for the autocomplete.
  • options
    Type: Object
    A map of option-value pairs to set.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option" );

widget()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Returns a jQuery object containing the menu element. Although the menu items are constantly created and destroyed, the menu element itself is created during initialization and is constantly reused.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the widget method:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "widget" );

Events

change( event, ui )Type: autocompletechange

Triggered when the field is blurred, if the value has changed.
  • event
    Type: Event
  • ui
    Type: Object
    • item
      Type: jQuery
      The item selected from the menu, if any. Otherwise the property is null.
Code examples:

Initialize the autocomplete with the change callback specified:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
  change: function( event, ui ) {}
});

Bind an event listener to the autocompletechange event:

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$( ".selector" ).on( "autocompletechange", function( event, ui ) {} );

close( event, ui )Type: autocompleteclose

Triggered when the menu is hidden. Not every close event will be accompanied by a change event.

Note: The ui object is empty but included for consistency with other events.

Code examples:

Initialize the autocomplete with the close callback specified:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
  close: function( event, ui ) {}
});

Bind an event listener to the autocompleteclose event:

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$( ".selector" ).on( "autocompleteclose", function( event, ui ) {} );

create( event, ui )Type: autocompletecreate

Triggered when the autocomplete is created.

Note: The ui object is empty but included for consistency with other events.

Code examples:

Initialize the autocomplete with the create callback specified:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
  create: function( event, ui ) {}
});

Bind an event listener to the autocompletecreate event:

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$( ".selector" ).on( "autocompletecreate", function( event, ui ) {} );

focus( event, ui )Type: autocompletefocus

Triggered when focus is moved to an item (not selecting). The default action is to replace the text field's value with the value of the focused item, though only if the event was triggered by a keyboard interaction.

Canceling this event prevents the value from being updated, but does not prevent the menu item from being focused.

Code examples:

Initialize the autocomplete with the focus callback specified:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
  focus: function( event, ui ) {}
});

Bind an event listener to the autocompletefocus event:

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$( ".selector" ).on( "autocompletefocus", function( event, ui ) {} );

open( event, ui )Type: autocompleteopen

Triggered when the suggestion menu is opened or updated.

Note: The ui object is empty but included for consistency with other events.

Code examples:

Initialize the autocomplete with the open callback specified:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
  open: function( event, ui ) {}
});

Bind an event listener to the autocompleteopen event:

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$( ".selector" ).on( "autocompleteopen", function( event, ui ) {} );

select( event, ui )Type: autocompleteselect

Triggered when an item is selected from the menu. The default action is to replace the text field's value with the value of the selected item.

Canceling this event prevents the value from being updated, but does not prevent the menu from closing.

Code examples:

Initialize the autocomplete with the select callback specified:

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$( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
  select: function( event, ui ) {}
});

Bind an event listener to the autocompleteselect event:

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$( ".selector" ).on( "autocompleteselect", function( event, ui ) {} );

Example:

A simple jQuery UI Autocomplete

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<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>autocomplete demo</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.8.24/themes/base/jquery-ui.css">
  <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.8.2.js"></script>
  <script src="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.8.24/jquery-ui.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
 
<label for="autocomplete">Select a programming language: </label>
<input id="autocomplete">
 
<script>
$( "#autocomplete" ).autocomplete({
  source: [ "c++", "java", "php", "coldfusion", "javascript", "asp", "ruby" ]
});
</script>
 
</body>
</html>

Demo: