nhunzaker / autocomplete.js

:crystal_ball: Fast and full-featured autocomplete library

Autocomplete.js

This JavaScript library adds a fast and fully-featured auto-completion menu to your search box displaying results "as you type". It can easily be combined with Algolia's realtime search engine. The library is available as a jQuery plugin, an Angular.js directive or a standalone library.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
  • jsDelivr
  • cdnjs
  • npm
  • Bower
  • Source dist/
  • Browserify
• Usage
  • Standalone
  • jQuery
  • Angular.JS
• Look and Feel
• Options
• Datasets
• Sources
  • Hits
  • PopularIn (aka "xxxxx in yyyyy")
  • Custom source
• Security
  • User-generated data: protecting against XSS
• Events
• API
  • jQuery
  • Standalone
• Development
• Tests
  • Testing accessibility
• Release
• Credits

Features

• Displays suggestions to end-users as they type
• Shows top suggestion as a hint (i.e. background text)
• Supports custom templates to allow for UI flexibility
• Works well with RTL languages and input method editors
• Triggers custom events

Installation

The autocomplete.js library must be included after jQuery, Zepto or Angular.js (with jQuery).

jsDelivr

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/autocomplete.js/0/autocomplete.min.js"></script>
<!-- OR -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/autocomplete.js/0/autocomplete.jquery.min.js"></script>
<!-- OR -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/autocomplete.js/0/autocomplete.angular.min.js"></script>

cdnjs

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/autocomplete.js/<VERSION>/autocomplete.min.js"></script>
<!-- OR -->
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/autocomplete.js/<VERSION>/autocomplete.jquery.min.js"></script>
<!-- OR -->
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/autocomplete.js/<VERSION>/autocomplete.angular.min.js"></script>

npm

npm install --save autocomplete.js

Bower

bower install algolia-autocomplete.js -S

Source dist/

You can find the built version in dist/.

Browserify

You can require it and use Browserify:

var autocomplete = require('autocomplete.js');

Usage

Standalone

1. Include autocomplete.min.js
2. Initialize the auto-completion menu calling the autocomplete function

<input type="text" id="search-input" placeholder="Search unicorns..." />

<!-- [ ... ] -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/algoliasearch/3/algoliasearch.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/autocomplete.js/0/autocomplete.min.js"></script>
<script>
  var client = algoliasearch('YourApplicationID', 'YourSearchOnlyAPIKey');
  var index = client.initIndex('YourIndex');
  autocomplete('#search-input', { hint: false }, [
    {
      source: autocomplete.sources.hits(index, { hitsPerPage: 5 }),
      displayKey: 'my_attribute',
      templates: {
        suggestion: function(suggestion) {
          return suggestion._highlightResult.my_attribute.value;
        }
      }
    }
  ]).on('autocomplete:selected', function(event, suggestion, dataset) {
    console.log(suggestion, dataset);
  });
</script>

jQuery

1. Include autocomplete.jquery.min.js after including jQuery
2. Initialize the auto-completion menu calling the autocomplete jQuery plugin

<input type="text" id="search-input" />

<!-- [ ... ] -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/algoliasearch/3/algoliasearch.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/autocomplete.js/0/autocomplete.jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
  var client = algoliasearch('YourApplicationID', 'YourSearchOnlyAPIKey')
  var index = client.initIndex('YourIndex');
  $('#search-input').autocomplete({ hint: false }, [
    {
      source: $.fn.autocomplete.sources.hits(index, { hitsPerPage: 5 }),
      displayKey: 'my_attribute',
      templates: {
        suggestion: function(suggestion) {
          return suggestion._highlightResult.my_attribute.value;
        }
      }
    }
  ]).on('autocomplete:selected', function(event, suggestion, dataset) {
    console.log(suggestion, dataset);
  });
</script>

Angular.JS

1. Include autocomplete.angular.min.js after including jQuery & Angular.js
2. Inject the algolia.autocomplete module
3. Add the autocomplete, aa-datasets and the optional aa-options attribute to your search bar

<div ng-controller="yourController">
  <input type="text" id="search-input" autocomplete aa-datasets="getDatasets()" />
</div>

<!-- [ include jQuery + Angular.js ] -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/algoliasearch/3/algoliasearch.angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/autocomplete.js/0/autocomplete.angular.min.js"></script>
<script>
  angular.module('myApp', ['algoliasearch', 'algolia.autocomplete'])
    .controller('yourController', ['$scope', 'algolia', function($scope, algolia) {
      var client = algolia.Client('YourApplicationID', 'YourSearchOnlyAPIKey');
      var index = client.initIndex('YourIndex');

      $scope.getDatasets = function() {
        return {
          source: algolia.sources.hits(index, { hitsPerPage: 5 }),
          displayKey: 'my_attribute',
          templates: {
            suggestion: function(suggestion) {
              return suggestion._highlightResult.my_attribute.value;
            }
          }
        };
      };

      $scope.$on('autocomplete:selected', function(event, suggestion, dataset) {
        console.log(suggestion, dataset);
      });
    }]);
</script>

Note: You need to rely on jQuery, the lite version embedded in Angular.js won't work.

Look and Feel

Below is a faux mustache template describing the DOM structure of an autocomplete dropdown menu. Keep in mind that header, footer, suggestion, and empty come from the provided templates detailed here.

<span class="aa-dropdown-menu{{#datasets}} aa-{{'with' or 'without'}}-{{name}}{{/datasets}}">
  {{#datasets}}
    <div class="aa-dataset-{{name}}">
      {{{header}}}
      <span class="aa-suggestions">
        {{#suggestions}}
          <div class="aa-suggestion">{{{suggestion}}}</div>
        {{/suggestions}}
        {{^suggestions}}
          {{{empty}}}
        {{/suggestions}}
      </span>
      {{{footer}}}
    </div>
  {{/datasets}}
  {{empty}}
</span>

When an end-user mouses or keys over a .aa-suggestion, the class aa-cursor will be added to it. You can use this class as a hook for styling the "under cursor" state of suggestions.

Add the following CSS rules to add a default style:

.algolia-autocomplete {
  width: 100%;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-input, .algolia-autocomplete .aa-hint {
  width: 100%;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-hint {
  color: #999;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-dropdown-menu {
  width: 100%;
  background-color: #fff;
  border: 1px solid #999;
  border-top: none;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-dropdown-menu .aa-suggestion {
  cursor: pointer;
  padding: 5px 4px;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-dropdown-menu .aa-suggestion.aa-cursor {
  background-color: #B2D7FF;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-dropdown-menu .aa-suggestion em {
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: normal;
}

Here is what the basic example looks like:

Options

When initializing an autocomplete, there are a number of options you can configure.

• autoselect – If true, the first rendered suggestion in the dropdown will automatically have the cursor class, and pressing <ENTER> will select it.

• autoselectOnBlur – If true, when the input is blurred, the first rendered suggestion in the dropdown will automatically have the cursor class, and pressing <ENTER> will select it. This option should be used on mobile, see #113

• hint – If false, the autocomplete will not show a hint. Defaults to true.

• debug – If true, the autocomplete will not close on blur. Defaults to false.

• openOnFocus – If true, the dropdown menu will open when the input is focused. Defaults to false.

• appendTo – If set with a DOM selector, doesn't wrap the input and appends the wrapper and dropdown menu to the first DOM element matching the selector. It automatically positions the wrapper under the input, and sets it to the same width as the input. Can't be used with hint: true, because hint requires the wrapper around the input.

• dropdownMenuContainer – If set with a DOM selector, it overrides the container of the dropdown menu.

• templates – An optional hash overriding the default templates.

  • dropdownMenu – the dropdown menu template. The template should include all dataset placeholders.
  • header – the header to prepend to the dropdown menu
  • footer – the footer to append to the dropdown menu
  • empty – the template to display when none of the datasets are returning results. The templating function is called with a context containing the underlying query.

• cssClasses – An optional hash overriding the default css classes.

  • root – the root classes. Defaults to algolia-autocomplete.
  • prefix – the CSS class prefix of all nested elements. Defaults to aa.
  • noPrefix - set this to true if you wish to not use any prefix. Without this option, all nested elements classes will have a leading dash. Defaults to false.
  • dropdownMenu – the dropdown menu CSS class. Defaults to dropdown-menu.
  • input – the input CSS class. Defaults to input.
  • hint – the hint CSS class. Defaults to hint.
  • suggestions – the suggestions list CSS class. Defaults to suggestions.
  • suggestion – the suggestion wrapper CSS class. Defaults to suggestion.
  • cursor – the cursor CSS class. Defaults to cursor.
  • dataset – the dataset CSS class. Defaults to dataset.
  • empty – the empty CSS class. Defaults to empty.

• keyboardShortcuts - Array of shortcut that will focus the input. For example if you want to bind s and / you can specify: keyboardShortcuts: ['s', '/']

• ariaLabel - An optional string that will populate the aria-label attribute.

<script type="text/template" id="my-custom-menu-template">
  <div class="my-custom-menu">
    <div class="row">
      <div class="col-sm-6">
        <div class="aa-dataset-d1"></div>
      </div>
      <div class="col-sm-6">
        <div class="aa-dataset-d2"></div>
        <div class="aa-dataset-d3"></div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</script>
<style>
body {
	font-family: -apple-system, sans-serif;
}
.algolia-autocomplete {
  width: 100%;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-input, .algolia-autocomplete .aa-hint {
  width: 100%;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-hint {
  color: #999;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-dropdown-menu {
  width: 100%;
  background-color: #fff;
  border: 1px solid #999;
  border-top: none;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-dropdown-menu .aa-suggestion {
  cursor: pointer;
  padding: 5px 4px;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-dropdown-menu .aa-suggestion.aa-cursor {
  background-color: #B2D7FF;
}
.algolia-autocomplete .aa-dropdown-menu .aa-suggestion em {
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: normal;
}

.branding {
font-size: 1.3em;
margin: 0.5em 0.2em;
}

.branding img {
	height: 1.3em;
	margin-bottom: - 0.3em;
}
</style>
<script>
  $('#search-input').autocomplete(
    {
      templates: {
        dropdownMenu: '#my-custom-menu-template',
        footer: '<div class="branding">Powered by <img src="https://www.algolia.com/static_assets/images/press/downloads/algolia-logo-light.svg" /></div>'
      }
    },
    [
      {
        source: $.fn.autocomplete.sources.hits(index1, { hitsPerPage: 5 }),
        name: 'd1',
        templates: {
          header: '<h4>List 1</h4>',
          suggestion: function(suggestion) {
            // FIXME
          }
        }
      },
      {
        source: $.fn.autocomplete.sources.hits(index2, { hitsPerPage: 2 }),
        name: 'd2',
        templates: {
          header: '<h4>List 2</h4>',
          suggestion: function(suggestion) {
            // FIXME
          }
        }
      },
      {
        source: $.fn.autocomplete.sources.hits(index3, { hitsPerPage: 2 }),
        name: 'd3',
        templates: {
          header: '<h4>List 3</h4>',
          suggestion: function(suggestion, answer) {
            // FIXME
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  );
</script>

• minLength – The minimum character length needed before suggestions start getting rendered. Defaults to 1.

• autoWidth – This option allow you to control the width of autocomplete wrapper. When false the autocomplete wrapper will not have the width style attribute and you are be able to put your specific width property in your css to control the wrapper. Default value is true.

One scenario for use this option. e.g. You have a max-width css attribute in your autocomplete-dropdown-menu and you need to width grows until fill the max-width. In this scenario you put a width: auto in your autocomplete wrapper css class and the max-width in your autocomplete dropdown class and all done.

Datasets

An autocomplete is composed of one or more datasets. When an end-user modifies the value of the underlying input, each dataset will attempt to render suggestions for the new value.

Datasets can be configured using the following options.

• source – The backing data source for suggestions. Expected to be a function with the signature (query, cb). It is expected that the function will compute the suggestion set (i.e. an array of JavaScript objects) for query and then invoke cb with said set. cb can be invoked synchronously or asynchronously.

• name – The name of the dataset. This will be appended to tt-dataset- to form the class name of the containing DOM element. Must only consist of underscores, dashes, letters (a-z), and numbers. Defaults to a random number.

• displayKey – For a given suggestion object, determines the string representation of it. This will be used when setting the value of the input control after a suggestion is selected. Can be either a key string or a function that transforms a suggestion object into a string. Defaults to value. Example function usage: displayKey: function(suggestion) { return suggestion.nickname || suggestion.firstName }

• templates – A hash of templates to be used when rendering the dataset. Note a precompiled template is a function that takes a JavaScript object as its first argument and returns a HTML string.

  • empty – Rendered when 0 suggestions are available for the given query. Can be either a HTML string or a precompiled template. The templating function is called with a context containing query, isEmpty, and any optional arguments that may have been forwarded by the source: function emptyTemplate({ query, isEmpty }, [forwarded args]).

  • footer – Rendered at the bottom of the dataset. Can be either a HTML string or a precompiled template. The templating function is called with a context containing query, isEmpty, and any optional arguments that may have been forwarded by the source: function footerTemplate({ query, isEmpty }, [forwarded args]).

  • header – Rendered at the top of the dataset. Can be either a HTML string or a precompiled template. The templating function is called with a context containing query, isEmpty, and any optional arguments that may have been forwarded by the source: function headerTemplate({ query, isEmpty }, [forwarded args]).

  • suggestion – Used to render a single suggestion. The templating function is called with the suggestion, and any optional arguments that may have been forwarded by the source: function suggestionTemplate(suggestion, [forwarded args]). Defaults to the value of displayKey wrapped in a p tag i.e. <p>{{value}}</p>.

Sources

A few helpers are provided by default to ease the creation of Algolia-based sources.

Hits

To build a source based on Algolia's hits array, just use:

{
  source: autocomplete.sources.hits(indexObj, { hitsPerPage: 2 }),
  templates: {
    suggestion: function(suggestion, answer) {
      // FIXME
    }
  }
}

PopularIn (aka "xxxxx in yyyyy")

To build an Amazon-like autocomplete menu, suggesting popular queries and for the most popular one displaying the associated categories, you can use the popularIn source:

{
  source: autocomplete.sources.popularIn(popularQueriesIndexObj, { hitsPerPage: 3 }, {
    source: 'sourceAttribute',           // attribute of the `popularQueries` index use to query the `index` index
    index: productsIndexObj,             // targeted index
    facets: 'facetedCategoryAttribute',  // facet used to enrich the most popular query
    maxValuesPerFacet: 3                 // maximum number of facets returned
  }, {
    includeAll: true,                    // should it include an extra "All department" suggestion
    allTitle: 'All departments'          // the included category label
  }),
  templates: {
    suggestion: function(suggestion, answer) {
      var value = suggestion.sourceAttribute;
      if (suggestion.facet) {
        // this is the first suggestion
        // and it has been enriched with the matching facet
        value += ' in ' + suggestion.facet.value + ' (' + suggestion.facet.count + ')';
      }
      return value;
    }
  }
}

Custom source

The source options can also take a function. It enables you to have more control of the results returned by Algolia search. The function function(query, callback) takes 2 parameters

• query: String: the text typed in the autocomplete
• callback: Function: the callback to call at the end of your processing with the array of suggestions

source: function(query, callback) {
  var index = client.initIndex('myindex');
  index.search(query, { hitsPerPage: 1, facetFilters: 'category:mycat' }).then(function(answer) {
    callback(answer.hits);
  }, function() {
    callback([]);
  });
}

Or by reusing an existing source:

var hitsSource = autocomplete.sources.hits(index, { hitsPerPage: 5 });

source: function(query, callback) {
  hitsSource(query, function(suggestions) {
    // FIXME: Do stuff with the array of returned suggestions
    callback(suggestions);
  });
}

Security

User-generated data: protecting against XSS

Malicious users may attempt to engineer XSS attacks by storing HTML/JS in their data. It is important that user-generated data be properly escaped before using it in an autocomplete.js template.

In order to easily do that, autocomplete.js provides you with a helper function escaping all HTML code but the highlighting tags:

  templates: {
    suggestion: function(suggestion) {
      var val = suggestion._highlightResult.name.value;
      return autocomplete.escapeHighlightedString(val);
    }
  }

If you did specify custom highlighting pre/post tags, you can specify them as 2nd and 3rd parameter:

  templates: {
    suggestion: function(suggestion) {
      var val = suggestion._highlightResult.name.value;
      return autocomplete.escapeHighlightedString(val, '<span class="highlighted">', '</span>');
    }
  }

Events

The autocomplete component triggers the following custom events.

• autocomplete:opened – Triggered when the dropdown menu of the autocomplete is opened.

• autocomplete:shown – Triggered when the dropdown menu of the autocomplete is shown (opened and non-empty).

• autocomplete:empty – Triggered when all datasets are empty.

• autocomplete:closed – Triggered when the dropdown menu of the autocomplete is closed.

• autocomplete:updated – Triggered when a dataset is rendered.

• autocomplete:cursorchanged – Triggered when the dropdown menu cursor is moved to a different suggestion. The event handler will be invoked with 3 arguments: the jQuery event object, the suggestion object, and the name of the dataset the suggestion belongs to.

• autocomplete:selected – Triggered when a suggestion from the dropdown menu is selected. The event handler will be invoked with 3 arguments: the jQuery event object, the suggestion object, and the name of the dataset the suggestion belongs to.

• autocomplete:cursorremoved – Triggered when the cursor leaves the selections or its current index is lower than 0

• autocomplete:autocompleted – Triggered when the query is autocompleted. Autocompleted means the query was changed to the hint. The event handler will be invoked with 3 arguments: the jQuery event object, the suggestion object, and the name of the dataset the suggestion belongs to.

• autocomplete:redrawn – Triggered when appendTo is used and the wrapper is resized/repositionned.

All custom events are triggered on the element initialized as the autocomplete.

API

jQuery

Turns any input[type="text"] element into an auto-completion menu. options is an options hash that's used to configure the autocomplete to your liking. Refer to Options for more info regarding the available configs. Subsequent arguments (*datasets), are individual option hashes for datasets. For more details regarding datasets, refer to Datasets.

$('.search-input').autocomplete({
  minLength: 3
},
{
  name: 'my-dataset',
  source: mySource
});

jQuery#autocomplete('destroy')

Removes the autocomplete functionality and reverts the input element back to its original state.

$('.search-input').autocomplete('destroy');

jQuery#autocomplete('open')

Opens the dropdown menu of the autocomplete. Note that being open does not mean that the menu is visible. The menu is only visible when it is open and has content.

$('.search-input').autocomplete('open');

jQuery#autocomplete('close')

Closes the dropdown menu of the autocomplete.

$('.search-input').autocomplete('close');

jQuery#autocomplete('val')

Returns the current value of the autocomplete. The value is the text the user has entered into the input element.

var myVal = $('.search-input').autocomplete('val');

jQuery#autocomplete('val', val)

Sets the value of the autocomplete. This should be used in place of jQuery#val.

$('.search-input').autocomplete('val', myVal);

jQuery.fn.autocomplete.noConflict()

Returns a reference to the autocomplete plugin and reverts jQuery.fn.autocomplete to its previous value. Can be used to avoid naming collisions.

var autocomplete = jQuery.fn.autocomplete.noConflict();
jQuery.fn._autocomplete = autocomplete;

Standalone

The standalone version API is similiar to jQuery's:

var search = autocomplete('#search', { hint: false }, [{
  source: autocomplete.sources.hits(index, { hitsPerPage: 5 }
}]);

search.autocomplete.open();
search.autocomplete.close();
search.autocomplete.getVal();
search.autocomplete.setVal('Hey Jude');
search.autocomplete.destroy();
search.autocomplete.getWrapper(); // since autocomplete.js wraps your input into another div, you can access that div

You can also pass a custom Typeahead instance in Autocomplete.js constructor:

var search = autocomplete('#search', { hint: false }, [{ ... }], new Typeahead({ ... }));

autocomplete.noConflict()

Returns a reference to the autocomplete plugin and reverts window.autocomplete to its previous value. Can be used to avoid naming collisions.

var algoliaAutocomplete = autocomplete.noConflict();

Development

To start developing, you can use the following commands:

yarn
yarn dev
open http://localhost:8888/test/playground.html

Linting is done with eslint and Algolia's configuration and can be run with:

yarn lint

Tests

Unit tests are written using Jasmine and ran with Karma. Integration tests are using Mocha and Saucelabs.

To run the unit tests suite run:

yarn test

To run the integration tests suite run:

yarn build
yarn server
ngrok 8888
TEST_HOST=http://YOUR_NGROK_ID.ngrok.com SAUCE_ACCESS_KEY=YOUR_KEY SAUCE_USERNAME=YOUR_USERNAME./node_modules/mocha/bin/mocha --harmony -R spec ./test/integration/test.js

Testing accessibility

Autocomplete.js is accessible to screen readers, and here's how to test how most blind users will experience it:

Steps

1. Run yarn dev on your development machine
2. Start the screen reader
3. Open a browser to http://YOUR_IP:8888/test/playground.html
4. Tab to the field
5. Type a search query
6. Use the arrow keys to navigate through the results

✔ SUCCESS: results are read (not necessarily in sync with the visually selected cursor)
𐄂 FAIL: no text is read or the screen reader keeps reading the typed query

Recommended testing platforms

• VoiceOver (CMD+F5 in macOS): Safari, Chrome
• JAWS: IE11, Chrome (Windows 7 VM available at modern.ie)
• NVDA: IE11, Chrome (Windows 8.1 VM available at modern.ie)

Tips

• All screen readers work slightly differently - which makes making accessible pages tricky.
• Don't worry if the usability isn't 100% perfect, but make sure the functionality is there.

Release

Decide if this is a patch, minor or major release, have a look at semver.org.

npm run release [major|minor|patch|x.x.x]

Credits

This library has originally been forked from Twitter's typeahead.js library.