method

auto_complete_field

rails latest stable - Class: ActionView::Helpers::JavaScriptMacrosHelper

auto_complete_field(field_id, options = {})

public

DEPRECATION WARNING: This method will become a separate plugin when Rails 2.0 ships.

Adds AJAX autocomplete functionality to the text input field with the DOM ID specified by field_id.

This function expects that the called action returns an HTML <ul> list, or nothing if no entries should be displayed for autocompletion.

You’ll probably want to turn the browser’s built-in autocompletion off, so be sure to include an autocomplete="off" attribute with your text input field.

The autocompleter object is assigned to a Javascript variable named field_id_auto_completer. This object is useful if you for example want to trigger the auto-complete suggestions through other means than user input (for that specific case, call the activate method on that object).

Required options are:

:url: URL to call for autocompletion results in url_for format.

Addtional options are:

`:update:`	Specifies the DOM ID of the element whose innerHTML should be updated with the autocomplete entries returned by the AJAX request. Defaults to `field_id` + ‘_auto_complete’
`:with:`	A JavaScript expression specifying the parameters for the XMLHttpRequest. This defaults to ‘fieldname=value’.
`:frequency:`	Determines the time to wait after the last keystroke for the AJAX request to be initiated.
`:indicator:`	Specifies the DOM ID of an element which will be displayed while autocomplete is running.
`:tokens:`	A string or an array of strings containing separator tokens for tokenized incremental autocompletion. Example: `:tokens => ','` would allow multiple autocompletion entries, separated by commas.
`:min_chars:`	The minimum number of characters that should be in the input field before an Ajax call is made to the server.
`:on_hide:`	A Javascript expression that is called when the autocompletion div is hidden. The expression should take two variables: element and update. Element is a DOM element for the field, update is a DOM element for the div from which the innerHTML is replaced.
`:on_show:`	Like on_hide, only now the expression is called then the div is shown.
`:after_update_element:`	A Javascript expression that is called when the user has selected one of the proposed values. The expression should take two variables: element and value. Element is a DOM element for the field, value is the value selected by the user.
`:select:`	Pick the class of the element from which the value for insertion should be extracted. If this is not specified, the entire element is used.

# File actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/java_script_macros_helper.rb, line 142
      def auto_complete_field(field_id, options = {})
        function =  "var #{field_id}_auto_completer = new Ajax.Autocompleter("
        function << "'#{field_id}', "
        function << "'" + (options[:update] || "#{field_id}_auto_complete") + "', "
        function << "'#{url_for(options[:url])}'"
        
        js_options = {}
        js_options[:tokens] = array_or_string_for_javascript(options[:tokens]) if options[:tokens]
        js_options[:callback]   = "function(element, value) { return #{options[:with]} }" if options[:with]
        js_options[:indicator]  = "'#{options[:indicator]}'" if options[:indicator]
        js_options[:select]     = "'#{options[:select]}'" if options[:select]
        js_options[:paramName]  = "'#{options[:param_name]}'" if options[:param_name]
        js_options[:frequency]  = "#{options[:frequency]}" if options[:frequency]

        { :after_update_element => :afterUpdateElement, 
          :on_show => :onShow, :on_hide => :onHide, :min_chars => :minChars }.each do |k,v|
          js_options[v] = options[k] if options[k]
        end

        function << (', ' + options_for_javascript(js_options) + ')')

        javascript_tag(function)
      end

2Notes

Moved to plugin "auto_complete"

Vidmantas · Aug 4, 20081 thank

This helper was moved to plugin "auto_complete" - http://svn.rubyonrails.org/rails/plugins/auto_complete/

Installation

Lauer · Nov 21, 2008

Install the plugin by typing script/plugin install auto_complete

Remember to restart webservice :)

auto_complete_field

Method deprecated or moved

2Notes

Moved to plugin "auto_complete"

Installation

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