# jQuery UI Autocomplete

## Overview

Autocomplete, when added to an input field, enables users to quickly find and select from a pre-populated list of values as they type, leveraging searching and filtering.

By giving an Autocomplete field focus or entering something into it, the plugin starts searching for entries that match and displays a list of values to choose from. By entering more characters, the user can filter down the list to better matches.

This can be used to enter previous selected values, for example you could use Autocomplete for entering tags, to complete an address, you could enter a city name and get the zip code, or maybe enter email addresses from an address book.

You can pull data in from a local and/or a remote source: Local is good for small data sets (like an address book with 50 entries), remote is necessary for big data sets, like a database with hundreds or millions of entries to select from.

Autocomplete can be customized to work with various data sources, by just specifying the source option. A data source can be:

- an Array with local data
- a String, specifying a URL
- a Callback

Expected data format

The data from local data, a url or a callback can come in two variants:

- An Array of Strings:
  `[ "Choice1", "Choice2" ]`
- An Array of Objects with label and value properties:
  `[ { label: "Choice1", value: "value1" }, ... ]`

The label property is displayed in the suggestion menu. The value will be inserted into the input element after the user selected something from the menu. If just one property is specified, it will be used for both, eg. if you provide only value-properties, the value will also be used as the label.

When a String is used, the Autocomplete plugin expects that string to point to a URL resource that will return JSON data. It can be on the same host or on a different one (must provide JSONP). The Autocomplete plugin does not filter the results, instead the request parameter "term" gets added to the URL, which the server-side script should use for filtering the results. The data itself can be in the same format as the local data described above.

The third variation, the callback, provides the most flexibility, and can be used to connect any data source to Autocomplete. The callback gets two arguments:

- A request object, with a single property called "term", which refers to the value currently in the text input. For example, when the user entered "new yo" in a city field, the Autocomplete term will equal "new yo".
- A response callback, which expects a single argument to contain the data to suggest to the user. This data should be filtered based on the provided term, and can be in any of the formats described above for simple local data (String-Array or Object-Array with label/value/both properties). It's important when providing a custom source callback to handle errors during the request. You must always call the response callback even if you encounter an error. This ensures that the widget always has the correct state.

The label is always treated as text, if you want the label to be treated as html you can use Scott González' html extension. The demos all focus on different variations of the source-option - look for the one that matches your use case, and take a look at the code.

### Dependencies

- UI Core
- UI Widget
- UI Position

### Example

- Demo
- View Source

A simple jQuery UI Autocomplete.

    $("input#autocomplete").autocomplete({
        source: ["c++", "java", "php", "coldfusion", "javascript", "asp", "ruby"]
    });

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
      <link href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8/themes/base/jquery-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
      <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5/jquery.min.js"></script>
      <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>

      <script>
      $(document).ready(function() {
        $("input#autocomplete").autocomplete({
        source: ["c++", "java", "php", "coldfusion", "javascript", "asp", "ruby"]
    });
      });
      </script>
    </head>
    <body style="font-size:62.5%;">

    <input id="autocomplete" />

    </body>
    </html>

## Options

- ### disabled

  Type:
    Boolean
  Default:
    false

  Disables (true) or enables (false) the autocomplete. Can be set when initialising (first creating) the autocomplete.

  #### Code examples

  Initialize a autocomplete with the `disabled` option specified.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({ disabled: true });

  Get or set the `disabled` option, after init.

        //getter
        var disabled = $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "disabled" );
        //setter
        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "disabled", true );

- ### appendTo

  Type:
    Selector
  Default:
    "body"

  Which element the menu should be appended to.

  #### Code examples

  Initialize a autocomplete with the `appendTo` option specified.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({ appendTo: "#someElem" });

  Get or set the `appendTo` option, after init.

        //getter
        var appendTo = $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "appendTo" );
        //setter
        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "appendTo", "#someElem" );

- ### autoFocus

  Type:
    Boolean
  Default:
    false

  If set to true the first item will be automatically focused.

  #### Code examples

  Initialize a autocomplete with the `autoFocus` option specified.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({ autoFocus: true });

  Get or set the `autoFocus` option, after init.

        //getter
        var autoFocus = $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "autoFocus" );
        //setter
        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "autoFocus", true );

- ### delay

  Type:
    Integer
  Default:
    300

  The delay in milliseconds the Autocomplete waits after a keystroke to activate itself. A zero-delay makes sense for local data (more responsive), but can produce a lot of load for remote data, while being less responsive.

  #### Code examples

  Initialize a autocomplete with the `delay` option specified.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({ delay: 0 });

  Get or set the `delay` option, after init.

        //getter
        var delay = $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "delay" );
        //setter
        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "delay", 0 );

- ### minLength

  Type:
    Integer
  Default:
    1

  The minimum number of characters a user has to type before the Autocomplete activates. Zero is useful for local data with just a few items. Should be increased when there are a lot of items, where a single character would match a few thousand items.

  #### Code examples

  Initialize a autocomplete with the `minLength` option specified.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({ minLength: 0 });

  Get or set the `minLength` option, after init.

        //getter
        var minLength = $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "minLength" );
        //setter
        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "minLength", 0 );

- ### position

  Type:
    Object
  Default:
    { my: "left top", at: "left bottom", collision: "none" }

  Identifies the position of the Autocomplete widget in relation to the associated input element. The "of" option defaults to the input element, but you can specify another element to position against. You can refer to the jQuery UI Position utility for more details about the various options.

  #### Code examples

  Initialize a autocomplete with the `position` option specified.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({ position: { my : "right top", at: "right bottom" } });

  Get or set the `position` option, after init.

        //getter
        var position = $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "position" );
        //setter
        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "position", { my : "right top", at: "right bottom" } );

- ### source

  Type:
    String, Array, Callback
  Default:
    none, must be specified

  Defines the data to use, must be specified. See Overview section for more details, and look at the various demos.

  #### Code examples

  Initialize a autocomplete with the `source` option specified.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({ source: ["c++", "java", "php", "coldfusion", "javascript", "asp", "ruby"] });

  Get or set the `source` option, after init.

        //getter
        var source = $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "source" );
        //setter
        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete( "option", "source", ["c++", "java", "php", "coldfusion", "javascript", "asp", "ruby"] );

## Events

- ### create

  Type:
    autocompletecreate

  This event is triggered when autocomplete is created.

  #### Code examples

  Supply a callback function to handle the `create` event as an init option.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
           create: function(event, ui) { ... }
        });

  Bind to the `create` event by type: `autocompletecreate`.

        $( ".selector" ).bind( "autocompletecreate", function(event, ui) {
          ...
        });

- ### search

  Type:
    autocompletesearch

  Before a request (source-option) is started, after minLength and delay are met. Can be canceled (return false), then no request will be started and no items suggested.

  #### Code examples

  Supply a callback function to handle the `search` event as an init option.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
           search: function(event, ui) { ... }
        });

  Bind to the `search` event by type: `autocompletesearch`.

        $( ".selector" ).bind( "autocompletesearch", function(event, ui) {
          ...
        });

- ### open

  Type:
    autocompleteopen

  Triggered when the suggestion menu is opened.

  #### Code examples

  Supply a callback function to handle the `open` event as an init option.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
           open: function(event, ui) { ... }
        });

  Bind to the `open` event by type: `autocompleteopen`.

        $( ".selector" ).bind( "autocompleteopen", function(event, ui) {
          ...
        });

- ### focus

  Type:
    autocompletefocus

  Before focus is moved to an item (not selecting), ui.item refers to the focused item. The default action of focus is to replace the text field's value with the value of the focused item, though only if the focus event was triggered by a keyboard interaction. Canceling this event prevents the value from being updated, but does not prevent the menu item from being focused.

  #### Code examples

  Supply a callback function to handle the `focus` event as an init option.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
           focus: function(event, ui) { ... }
        });

  Bind to the `focus` event by type: `autocompletefocus`.

        $( ".selector" ).bind( "autocompletefocus", function(event, ui) {
          ...
        });

- ### select

  Type:
    autocompleteselect

  Triggered when an item is selected from the menu; ui.item refers to the selected item. The default action of select is to replace the text field's value with the value of the selected item. Canceling this event prevents the value from being updated, but does not prevent the menu from closing.

  #### Code examples

  Supply a callback function to handle the `select` event as an init option.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
           select: function(event, ui) { ... }
        });

  Bind to the `select` event by type: `autocompleteselect`.

        $( ".selector" ).bind( "autocompleteselect", function(event, ui) {
          ...
        });

- ### close

  Type:
    autocompleteclose

  When the list is hidden - doesn't have to occur together with a change.

  #### Code examples

  Supply a callback function to handle the `close` event as an init option.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
           close: function(event, ui) { ... }
        });

  Bind to the `close` event by type: `autocompleteclose`.

        $( ".selector" ).bind( "autocompleteclose", function(event, ui) {
          ...
        });

- ### change

  Type:
    autocompletechange

  Triggered when the field is blurred, if the value has changed; ui.item refers to the selected item.

  #### Code examples

  Supply a callback function to handle the `change` event as an init option.

        $( ".selector" ).autocomplete({
           change: function(event, ui) { ... }
        });

  Bind to the `change` event by type: `autocompletechange`.

        $( ".selector" ).bind( "autocompletechange", function(event, ui) {
          ...
        });

## Methods

- ### destroy

  Signature:
    .autocomplete( "destroy" )

  Remove the autocomplete functionality completely. This will return the element back to its pre-init state.

- ### disable

  Signature:
    .autocomplete( "disable" )

  Disable the autocomplete.

- ### enable

  Signature:
    .autocomplete( "enable" )

  Enable the autocomplete.

- ### option

  Signature:
    .autocomplete( "option" , optionName , [value] )

  Get or set any autocomplete option. If no value is specified, will act as a getter.

- ### option

  Signature:
    .autocomplete( "option" , options )

  Set multiple autocomplete options at once by providing an options object.

- ### widget

  Signature:
    .autocomplete( "widget" )

  Returns the .ui-autocomplete element.

- ### search

  Signature:
    .autocomplete( "search" , [value] )

  Triggers a search event, which, when data is available, then will display the suggestions; can be used by a selectbox-like button to open the suggestions when clicked. If no value argument is specified, the current input's value is used. Can be called with an empty string and minLength: 0 to display all items.

- ### close

  Signature:
    .autocomplete( "close" )

  Close the Autocomplete menu. Useful in combination with the search method, to close the open menu.

## Theming

The jQuery UI Autocomplete plugin uses the jQuery UI CSS Framework to style its look and feel, including colors and background textures. We recommend using the ThemeRoller tool to create and download custom themes that are easy to build and maintain.

If a deeper level of customization is needed, there are widget-specific classes referenced within the jquery.ui.autocomplete.css stylesheet that can be modified. These classes are highlighed in bold below.

### Sample markup with jQuery UI CSS Framework classes

<input class="ui-autocomplete-input"/>
<ul class="ui-autocomplete ui-menu ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-corner-all">
<li class="ui-menu-item">
<a class="ui-corner-all">item 1</a>
</li>
<li class="ui-menu-item">
<a class="ui-corner-all">item 2</a>
</li>
<li class="ui-menu-item">
<a class="ui-corner-all">item 3</a>
</li>
</ul>

Note: This is a sample of markup generated by the autocomplete plugin, not markup you should use to create a autocomplete. The only markup needed for that is <input/>.