Introduces autocompleting power to textareas, like a GitHub comment form has.
Demo.
- jQuery (>= 1.7.0) OR Zepto (>= 1.0)
Note: The key words "MUST", "SHOULD", and "MAY" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
jQuery MUST be loaded ahead.
<script src="path/to/jquery.js"></script>
<script src="path/to/jquery.textcomplete.js"></script>Then jQuery.fn.textcomplete is defined. The method MUST be called for textarea elements, and the receiver SHOULD include an element.
$('textarea').textcomplete(strategies);The strategies is an Array. Each element is called as strategy object.
var strategies = [
// There are two strategies.
strategy,
{ /* the other strategy */ }
];The strategy is an Object which MUST have match, search and replace and MAY have index, maxCount and template.
var strategy = {
// Required
match: matchRegExp,
search: searchFunc,
replace: replaceFunc,
// Optional
index: indexNumber,
maxCount: maxCountNumber,
template: templateFunc,
cache: cacheBoolean
}The matchRegExp and indexNumber MUST be a RegExp and a Number respectively. matchRegExp MUST contain capturing groups and SHOULD end with $. indexNumber defaults to 2. The word captured by indexNumber-th group is going to be the term argument of searchFunc.
// Detect the word starting with '@' as a query term.
var matchRegExp = /(^|\s)@(\w*)$/;
var indexNumber = 2;The searchFunc MUST be a Function which gets two arguments, term and callback. It MUST invoke callback with an Array. It is guaranteed that the function will be invoked exclusively even though it contains async call.
If you want to execute callback multiple times per a search, you SHOULD give true to the second argument while additional execution remains. This is useful to use data located at both local and remote. Note that you MUST invoke callback without truthy second argument at least once per a search.
The maxCountNumber MUST be a Number and default to 10. Even if searchFunc callbacks with large array, the array will be truncated into maxCountNumber elements.
The cacheBoolean MUST be a Boolean. It defaults to false. If it is true the searchFunc will be memoized by term argument. This is useful to prevent excessive API access.
var searchFunc = function (term, callback) {
callback(cache[term], true); // Show local cache immediately.
$.getJSON('/search', { q: term })
.done(function (resp) {
callback(resp); // Resp must be an Array
})
.fail(function () {
callback([]); // Callback must be invoked even if something went wrong.
});
};The templateFunc MUST be a Function which gets and returns a string. The function is going to be called as an iteretor for the array given to the callback of searchFunc.
var templateFunc = function (value) {
// `value` is an element of callbacked array.
return '<b>' + value + '</b>';
};The replaceFunc MUST be a Function which returns a String or an Array of two Strings. It is going to be invoked when a user will click and select an item of autocomplete dropdown.
var replaceFunc = function (value) { return '$1@' + value + ' '; };The result is going to be used to replace the textarea's text content using String.prototype.replace with matchRegExp:
textarea.value = textarea.value.replace(matchRegExp, replaceFunc(value));Suppose you want to do autocomplete for HTML elements, you may want to reposition the cursor in the middle of elements after the autocomplete. In this case, you can do that by making replaceFunc return an Array of two Strings. Then the cursor points between these two strings.
var replaceFunc = function (value) {
return ['$1<' + value + '>', '</' + value + '>'];
}$('textarea').textcomplete({
// mention strategy
mention: {
match: /(^|\s)@(\w*)$/,
search: function (term, callback) {
callback(cache[term], true);
$.getJSON('/search', { q: term })
.done(function (resp) { callback(resp); })
.fail(function () { callback([]); });
},
replace: function (value) {
return '$1@' + value + ' ';
},
cache: true
},
// emoji strategy
emoji: {
match: /(^|\s):(\w*)$/,
search: function (term, callback) {
var regexp = new RegExp('^' + term);
callback($.grep(emojies, function (emoji) {
return regexp.test(emoji);
}));
},
replace: function (value) {
return '$1:' + value + ': ';
}
}
});The HTML generated by jquery-textcomplete is compatible with Bootstrap's dropdown. So all Bootstrap oriented css files are available.
This repository also includes jquery.autocomplete.css. It is useful to be used as the starting point.
Use the following match and replace at your strategy:
match: /(^|\s)@(\w*)$/,
replace: function (value) { return '$1@' + value + ' '; }If you use @ just for trigger and want to remove it when a user makes her choice:
match: /(^|\s)(@\w*)$/
replace: function (value) { return '$1' + value + ' '; }Invoking callback(localData, true) and callback(remoteData) is what you have to do.
search: function (term, callback) {
callback(cache[term], true);
$.getJSON('/search', { q: term })
.done(function (resp) { callback(resp); })
.fail(function () { callback([]); });
}Turn on the cache option.
Apply display: block too.
textarea {
width: 100%;
display: block; /* Default: inline-block */
}If you need inline-block textarea for design reason, you have to wrap it by inline-block element.
<span style="width: 70%;">
<textarea style="display: block; width: 100%;"></textarea>
</span>
<span style="width: 30%;">
30% width contents
</span>Feel free to callback searchFunc with an Array of Object. templateFunc and replaceFunc will be invoked with an element of the array.
- Tests
- Now strategies argument is an Array of strategy objects.
- Several bugfixes.
- Up and Down arrows cycle instead of exit.
- Support Zepto.
- Support jQuery.overlay.
- Some performance improvement.
- Imprement lazy callbacking on search function.
- Support IE8.
- Some performance improvement.
- Imprement cache option.
- Initial release.
Licensed under the MIT License