AutoCompleteBase Class

Whether or not to enable the browser's built-in autocomplete functionality for input fields.

When a queryDelimiter is set, trailing delimiters will automatically be stripped from the input value by default when the input node loses focus. Set this to true to allow trailing delimiters.

Whether or not to enable in-memory caching in result sources that support it.

Node to monitor for changes, which will generate query events when appropriate. May be either an <input> or a <textarea>.

Maximum number of results to return. A value of 0 or less will allow an unlimited number of results.

Minimum number of characters that must be entered before a query event will be fired. A value of 0 allows empty queries; a negative value will effectively disable all query events.

Current query, or null if there is no current query.

The query might not be the same as the current value of the input node, both for timing reasons (due to queryDelay) and because when one or more queryDelimiter separators are in use, only the last portion of the delimited input string will be used as the query value.

Number of milliseconds to delay after input before triggering a query event. If new input occurs before this delay is over, the previous input event will be ignored and a new delay will begin.

This can be useful both to throttle queries to a remote data source and to avoid distracting the user by showing them less relevant results before they've paused their typing.

Query delimiter string. When a delimiter is configured, the input value will be split on the delimiter, and only the last portion will be used in autocomplete queries and updated when the query attribute is modified.

Source request template. This can be a function that accepts a query as a parameter and returns a request string, or it can be a string containing the placeholder "{query}", which will be replaced with the actual URI-encoded query. In either case, the resulting string will be appended to the request URL when the source attribute is set to a remote DataSource, JSONP URL, or XHR URL (it will not be appended to YQL URLs).

While requestTemplate may be set to either a function or a string, it will always be returned as a function that accepts a query argument and returns a string.

Array of local result filter functions. If provided, each filter will be called with two arguments when results are received: the query and an array of result objects. See the documentation for the results event for a list of the properties available on each result object.

Each filter is expected to return a filtered or modified version of the results array, which will then be passed on to subsequent filters, then the resultHighlighter function (if set), then the resultFormatter function (if set), and finally to subscribers to the results event.

If no source is set, result filters will not be called.

Prepackaged result filters provided by the autocomplete-filters and autocomplete-filters-accentfold modules can be used by specifying the filter name as a string, such as 'phraseMatch' (assuming the necessary filters module is loaded).

Function which will be used to format results. If provided, this function will be called with two arguments after results have been received and filtered: the query and an array of result objects. The formatter is expected to return an array of HTML strings or Node instances containing the desired HTML for each result.

See the documentation for the results event for a list of the properties available on each result object.

If no source is set, the formatter will not be called.

Function which will be used to highlight results. If provided, this function will be called with two arguments after results have been received and filtered: the query and an array of filtered result objects. The highlighter is expected to return an array of highlighted result text in the form of HTML strings.

See the documentation for the results event for a list of the properties available on each result object.

If no source is set, the highlighter will not be called.

Locator that should be used to extract an array of results from a non-array response.

By default, no locator is applied, and all responses are assumed to be arrays by default. If all responses are already arrays, you don't need to define a locator.

The locator may be either a function (which will receive the raw response as an argument and must return an array) or a string representing an object path, such as "foo.bar.baz" (which would return the value of result.foo.bar.baz if the response is an object).

While resultListLocator may be set to either a function or a string, it will always be returned as a function that accepts a response argument and returns an array.

Current results, or an empty array if there are no results.

Locator that should be used to extract a plain text string from a non-string result item. The resulting text value will typically be the value that ends up being inserted into an input field or textarea when the user of an autocomplete implementation selects a result.

By default, no locator is applied, and all results are assumed to be plain text strings. If all results are already plain text strings, you don't need to define a locator.

The locator may be either a function (which will receive the raw result as an argument and must return a string) or a string representing an object path, such as "foo.bar.baz" (which would return the value of result.foo.bar.baz if the result is an object).

While resultTextLocator may be set to either a function or a string, it will always be returned as a function that accepts a result argument and returns a string.

Source for autocomplete results. The following source types are supported:

Array

The full array will be provided to any configured filters for each query. This is an easy way to create a fully client-side autocomplete implementation.

Example: ['first result', 'second result', 'etc']

DataSource

A DataSource instance or other object that provides a DataSource-like sendRequest method. See the DataSource documentation for details.

Function

A function source will be called with the current query and a callback function as parameters, and should either return an array of results (for synchronous operation) or return nothing and pass an array of results to the provided callback (for asynchronous operation).

Example (synchronous):

    function (query) {
        return ['foo', 'bar'];
    }
    

Example (async):

    function (query, callback) {
        callback(['foo', 'bar']);
    }
    

Object

An object will be treated as a query hashmap. If a property on the object matches the current query, the value of that property will be used as the response.

The response is assumed to be an array of results by default. If the response is not an array, provide a resultListLocator to process the response and return an array.

Example: {foo: ['foo result 1', 'foo result 2'], bar: ['bar result']}

If the optional autocomplete-sources module is loaded, then the following additional source types will be supported as well:

<select> Node

You may provide a YUI Node instance wrapping a <select> element, and the options in the list will be used as results. You will also need to specify a resultTextLocator of 'text' or 'value', depending on what you want to use as the text of the result. Each result will be an object with the following properties:

html (String)

HTML content of the <option> element.

index (Number)

Index of the <option> element in the list.

node (Y.Node)

Node instance referring to the original <option> element.

selected (Boolean)

Whether or not this item is currently selected in the <select> list.

text (String)

Text content of the <option> element.

value (String)

Value of the <option> element.

String (JSONP URL)

If a URL with a {callback} placeholder is provided, it will be used to make a JSONP request. The {query} placeholder will be replaced with the current query, and the {callback} placeholder will be replaced with an internally-generated JSONP callback name. Both placeholders must appear in the URL, or the request will fail. An optional {maxResults} placeholder may also be provided, and will be replaced with the value of the maxResults attribute (or 1000 if the maxResults attribute is 0 or less).

The response is assumed to be an array of results by default. If the response is not an array, provide a resultListLocator to process the response and return an array.

The jsonp module must be loaded in order for JSONP URL sources to work. If the jsonp module is not already loaded, it will be loaded on demand if possible.

Example: 'http://example.com/search?q={query}&callback={callback}'

String (XHR URL)

If a URL without a {callback} placeholder is provided, it will be used to make a same-origin XHR request. The {query} placeholder will be replaced with the current query. An optional {maxResults} placeholder may also be provided, and will be replaced with the value of the maxResults attribute (or 1000 if the maxResults attribute is 0 or less).

The response is assumed to be a JSON array of results by default. If the response is a JSON object and not an array, provide a resultListLocator to process the response and return an array. If the response is in some form other than JSON, you will need to use a custom DataSource instance as the source.

The io-base and json-parse modules must be loaded in order for XHR URL sources to work. If these modules are not already loaded, they will be loaded on demand if possible.

Example: 'http://example.com/search?q={query}'

String (YQL query)

If a YQL query is provided, it will be used to make a YQL request. The {query} placeholder will be replaced with the current autocomplete query. This placeholder must appear in the YQL query, or the request will fail. An optional {maxResults} placeholder may also be provided, and will be replaced with the value of the maxResults attribute (or 1000 if the maxResults attribute is 0 or less).

The yql module must be loaded in order for YQL sources to work. If the yql module is not already loaded, it will be loaded on demand if possible.

Example: 'select * from search.suggest where query="{query}"'

As an alternative to providing a source, you could simply listen for query events and handle them any way you see fit. Providing a source is optional, but will usually be simpler.

May be used to force a specific source type, overriding the automatic source type detection. It should almost never be necessary to do this, but as they taught us in the Boy Scouts, one should always be prepared, so it's here if you need it. Be warned that if you set this attribute and something breaks, it's your own fault.

Supported sourceType values are: 'array', 'datasource', 'function', and 'object'.

If the autocomplete-sources module is loaded, the following additional source types are supported: 'io', 'jsonp', 'select', 'string', 'yql'

If the inputNode specified at instantiation time has a node-tokeninput plugin attached to it, this attribute will be a reference to the Y.Plugin.TokenInput instance.

Current value of the input node.

YQL environment file URL to load when the source is set to a YQL query. Set this to null to use the default Open Data Tables environment file (http://datatables.org/alltables.env).

URL protocol to use when the source is set to a YQL query.