Ajax AutoComplete for Prototype

Ajax Autocomplete for Prototype allows you to easily create autocomplete/autosuggest boxes for text input fields.

It is built with focus on performance. Results for every query are cached and pulled from local cache for the same repeating query. If there are no results for particular query it stops sending requests to the server for other queries with the same root.

Download Latest version 1.0.4

Attention! This plugin is not supported anymore, but you can download and use it "as-is". For the most up-to-date version of autocomplete, please refer to jQuery Autocomplete

Installation

Include Prototype 1.6.0.2 in your header. After its included, add autocomplete script.

<script type="text/javascript" src="prototype.js"></script>

      <script type="text/javascript" src="autocomplete.js"></script>

How to Use

Here is an Ajax Autocomplete sample for the text field with id "query"

<input type="text" name="q" id="query" />

Create an instance of the Autocomplete object. You can have multiple instances on a single page.

<script type="text/javascript">

      new Autocomplete('query', { serviceUrl:'service/autocomplete.ashx' });

      </script>

You can add extra options:

new Autocomplete('query', {

         serviceUrl:'service/autocomplete.ashx',

         minChars:2,

         maxHeight:400,

         width:300,

         deferRequestBy:100,

         // callback function:

         onSelect: function(value, data){

           alert('You selected: ' + value + ', ' + data);

         }

       });

Web page that provides data for Ajax Autocomplete, in our case autocomplete.ashx will receive GET request with querystring ?query=Li, and it must return JSON data in the following format:

{

         query: 'Li',

         suggestions: ['Liberia','Libyan Arab Jamahiriya','Liechtenstein','Lithuania'],

         data: ['LR','LY','LI','LT']

      }

Notes:

query - original query value
suggestions - comma separated array of suggested values
data (optional) - data array, that contains values for callback function when data is selected.

Styling

Script generates the following HTML (sample query Li). Active element when you navigate up and down is marked with class "selected". You can style it any way you wish.

<div class="autocomplete-w1">

        <div style="width:299px;" id="Autocomplete_1240430421731" class="autocomplete">

          <div><strong>Li</strong>beria</div>

          <div><strong>Li</strong>byan Arab Jamahiriya</div>

          <div><strong>Li</strong>echtenstein</div>

          <div class="selected"><strong>Li</strong>thuania</div>

        </div>

      </div>

Here is style used in the sample above:

.autocomplete-w1 { background:url(img/shadow.png) no-repeat bottom right; position:absolute; top:4px; left:3px; /* IE6 fix: */ _background:none; _top:1px; }

      .autocomplete { width:300px; border:1px solid #999; background:#FFF; cursor:default; text-align:left; max-height:350px; overflow:auto; margin:-6px 6px 6px -6px; /* IE specific: */ _height:350px; _margin:0px 6px 6px 0; overflow-x:hidden; }

      .autocomplete .selected { background:#F0F0F0; }

      .autocomplete div { padding:2px 5px; white-space:nowrap; }

      .autocomplete strong { font-weight:normal; color:#3399FF; }

If you will use this CSS, please make sure to correct path to the shadow.png image. Image is included in the package. It uses CSS Drop Shadow technique by Sergio Villarreal.