Repeated Auto Complete

Fork of the standard auto_complete plugin to support:

1. Creating auto complete text fields that can be repeated more than once on a single form.
2. Using auto_complete_for with named scopes to display a customized list of autocomplete options.

See: patshaughnessy.net/repeated_auto_complete for details.

Install as a gem

  gem sources -a http://gemcutter.org
  sudo gem install repeated_auto_complete

and in config/environment.rb:

  Rails::Initializer.run do |config|

    config.gem "repeated_auto_complete"

  end

Install as a plugin

  script/plugin install git://github.com/patshaughnessy/auto_complete.git

Repeated autocomplete text fields:

A "text_field_with_auto_complete" method is made available to the form builder yielded by form_for and fields_for that:

• Insures unique id’s for <input> and <div> tags by inserting unique integers into their id attributes
• Uses the object name from the surrounding call to form_for or fields_for so attribute mass assignment will work as usual
• Works with the same server side controller method, auto_complete_for, as usual
• Supports nested attributes in Rails 2.3

form.text_field_with_auto_complete works the same as the original text_field_with_auto_complete macro, except it does not take the object as a parameter.

Example with nested attributes using Rails 2.3 or later:

  class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
    has_many :tasks
    accepts_nested_attributes_for :tasks, :allow_destroy => true
  end

  <% form_for @project do |project_form| %>
    <p>
      <%= project_form.label :name, "Project:" %>
      <%= project_form.text_field_with_auto_complete :name, {}, {:method => :get } %>
    </p>
    <% project_form.fields_for :tasks do |task_form| %>
      <p>
        <%= task_form.label :name, "Task:" %>
        <%= task_form.text_field_with_auto_complete :name, {}, { :method => :get, :skip_style => true } %>
      </p>
    <% end %>
  <% end %>

Rails 2.2 and earlier example:

  <% for person in @group.people %>
    <% fields_for "group[person_attributes][]", person do |person_form| %>
      <p>
        Person <%= person_form.label :name %><br/>
        <%= person_form.text_field_with_auto_complete :name, {}, {:method => :get }  %>
      </p>
    <% end %>
  <% end %>

Named scopes with auto_complete_for:

auto_complete_for now optionally accepts a block that is called with the item list and HTTP parameters when the auto complete AJAX request is received. This block can be used to specify that a named scope be used to generate a customized list of autocomplete options.

Example using anonymous scope:

  auto_complete_for :some_model, :some_other_field do |items, params|
    items.scoped( { :conditions => [ "a_third_field = ?", params['some_model']['a_third_field'] ] })
  end

Example using named scope:

  class Task < ActiveRecord::Base
    belongs_to :project
    named_scope :by_project,
      lambda { |project_name| {
        :include => :project,
        :conditions => [ "projects.name = ?", project_name ]
      } }
  end

  auto_complete_for :task, :name do | items, params |
    items.by_project(params['project'])
  end

Autocomplete Scaffolding:

The "View Mapper" gem will generate scaffolding code that illustrates how to use the standard Rails auto_complete plugin in a simple form, or the repeated_auto_complete plugin/gem in a complex form.

See: patshaughnessy.net/2009/10/1/auto_complete-scaffolding

Or: patshaughnessy.net/2009/11/25/scaffolding-for-auto-complete-on-a-complex-nested-form

Copyright © 2009 [Pat Shaughnessy], released under the MIT license