CompleteIt.js

CompleteIt.js is a small library to autocomplete results in search inputs. It is designed to work with a remote endpoint that serves autocomplete results (i.e. ElasticSearch, Zend).

CompleteIt.js provides an UI to show and select autocomplete results.

CompleteIt.js is designed to prevent an excessive number of requests to the remote endpoint. To achieve this, it comes with a built-in throttling mechanism for remote requests and with an aggressive caching mechanism. The only dependency is lodash.throttle.

CompleteIt.js is built with Brunch. CompleteIt.js uses the Rosetta Stone "Hello Javascript" to build its code for distribution.

Usage Example

CompleteIt.js has to be attached to a form that contains an input.

var CompleteIt = require('complete-it');

var form = document.body.querySelector('#autocomplete');
CompleteIt.init(form);

<form id="autocomplete" action="http://www.example.org/search">
  <input type="text"
    name="q"
    placeholder="search"
    autocomplete="off"
    autocapitalize="off">
</form>

npm

npm install complete-it

Bower

bower install complete-it

And the use the dist/complete-it.js as a <script> tag.

Direct download

Download and use the unminified complete-it.js or the minified complete-it.min.js file from releases page.

Bower and direct download also contains dependencies.

Options

• throttleTime: the minimum interval between remote queries. (default: 500ms).
• minLength: the autocomplete starts if the input value length is at least minLength. (default: 5).
• cache: describes the cache strategy. More info in cache section.
• middleware: is the function applied to ajax callback. More info in middleware section.
• cacheExpires: the cache will expires in cacheExpires. The value is in seconds. default: 604800 (1 week).

Cache

There are three cache strategies provided out of the box: memory, localStorage and sessionStorage. The first one, memory, simply store the remote queries in a local array of objects and it resets at every page reload. The others use localStorage and sessionStorage to have a persistent cache. You can also set cache to false if you always want fresh results from server. This options defaults to localStorage and silently degrades to memory if there is no localStorage support.

Ajax

CompleteIt.js allows you to use the ajax library you prefer. Its ajax option accepts a Promise and it will use the results always in the same way, without being influenced by the ajax library that you will choose. In this way you can also use your specific option for the remote query and CompleteIt.js doesn't need to know anything. The ajax options accepts a parameter (value) that corresponds to the current input value. The response from the request will be passed to middleware function and then processed by the library.

jQuery example

This example uses jQuery ajax method, passing some custom options.

var CompleteIt = require('complete-it');

var $form = $('#autocomplete');
CompleteIt.init($form.get(0), {
  ajax: function (value) {
    return $.ajax({
      url: 'http://example.org/some-remote-endpoint',
      crossDomain: true, // Custom
      cookies: true,     // options.
      data: {
        q: value // Take the value from input
      }
    });
  }
});

reqwest example

This example uses reqwest.

var reqwest = require('reqwest');
var CompleteIt = require('complete-it');

var form = document.body.querySelector('#autocomplete');

CompleteIt.init(form, {
  ajax: function (value) {
    return reqwest({
      url: 'http://example.org/some-remote-endpoint',
      method: 'post',
      data: {
        q: value // Take the value from input
      }
    });
  }
});

Middleware

CompleteIt.js is designed only to provide an UI for the autocomplete and for throttle and cache the remote queries. It doesn't want to know anything about your results. To make things simple CompleteIt.js assumes that the result of the remote query is an array of objects, each object with a content key with the content of the autocomplete. This array should also be ordered as you want. To uniform your result with the form requested by the library you have the middleware option. It accepts, two parameters (results, the response received from the query and input, the current input value). With this option you can also manipulate the order and form of your results, if you need to do it at client side. You can, for example, also limit your results at client side.

Standard form of response

This is the array of object that MUST return from middleware.

[
  {
    'content': 'An autocompleted result'
  },
  {
    'content': 'Another autocompleted result'
  }
  ...
]

Middleware basic example

This example simply change the content key. The response objects contains the autocompleted result in the text key that will be changed to the required content key, using lodash map method.

var CompleteIt = require('complete-it');

var form = document.body.querySelector('#autocomplete');

CompleteIt.init(form, {
  middleware: function (results, value) {
    var temporaryElements = _.map(results, function(element) {
      element.content = element.text; // Use the `content` key
      return element;
    });
    return temporaryElements;
  }
});

Don't worry if your response contains unuseful keys, CompleteIt.js will clean it for you.

middleware order example

This example change the content key and order the results by a _score key, using lodash map and orderBy methods.

var CompleteIt = require('complete-it');

var form = document.body.querySelector('#autocomplete');

CompleteIt.init(form, {
  middleware: function (results, value) {
    var temporaryElements = _.map(results, function(element) {
      element.content = element.text; // Use the `content` key
      return element;
    });
    // Order elements by `_score` key.
    temporaryElements = _.sortBy(temporaryElements, function (element) {
      return element._score;
    }); 

    return temporaryElements;
  }
});

Markup

The markup is really simple. When initialized the library will inject a ghost input (with .ghost-input class), used to show the first autocompleted result in the input and a ul with .list class that will be filled with the autocomplete results. The current result, selected with mouse or keyboard, receives the current class.

Contributing

git clone https://github.com/dehlic/completeIt
npm install
npm start

Building

npm run build will build the library to dist and dist-node.

Browser support

• IE10+ (classList support is missing in IE<10. Extend support with polyfill
• Chrome 8+
• Firefox 3.6+
• Safari 5.1+
• Opera 11.5+

Happy [autoco                ] [GO!]
      |autocoding            |
      |autocomplete          |
      |autocompleting results|
      |autocompleting stuff  |