ion-autocomplete

Configurable Ionic directive for an autocomplete dropdown.

#Table of contents

• Demo
• Introduction
• Features
• Installation
• Ionic compatibility
• Usage
  • Configurable options
    • The items-method
    • The items-method-value-key
    • The item-value-key
    • The item-view-value-key
    • The multiple-select
    • The items-clicked-method
    • ComponentId
    • Placeholder
    • Cancel button label
    • Select items label
    • Selected items label
    • Template url
  • Using expressions in value keys
• Release notes
• Acknowledgements
• License

Demo

Introduction

For one of my private projects I needed an autocomplete component in Ionic. I searched a lot and found some plain Angular autocompletes, but these had too much other dependencies and mostly didn't look that good within Ionic. Then one day I stumbled upon the ion-google-place project which was exactly what I was looking for, except that it was just working with the Google Places API. So I forked the project and made it configurable such that you can add the service you need. The differences between the ion-google-place project and the ion-autocomplete are listed in the features.

Features

The ion-autocomplete component has the following features:

• Multiple selection support
• Configure a callback when an item is clicked
• Configurable service which provides the items to list
• Configure what is stored in the model and what is seen in the list
• Configure all labels used in the component
• Configure the template used to show the autocomplete component

Installation

1. Use bower to install the new module:

bower install ion-autocomplete --save

2. Import the ion-autocomplete javascript and css file into your HTML file:

<script src="bower_components/ion-autocomplete/dist/ion-autocomplete.js"></script>
<link href="bower_components/ion-autocomplete/dist/ion-autocomplete.css" rel="stylesheet">

3. Add ion-autocomplete as a dependency on your Ionic app:

angular.module('myApp', [
  'ionic',
  'ion-autocomplete'
]);

Ionic compatibility

The ion-autocomplete component is running with the following Ionic versions:

ion-autocomplete version	Ionic version
0.0.2 - 0.1.2	1.0.0-beta.14
0.2.0 - 0.2.1	1.0.0-rc.3
0.2.2 - latest	1.0.0

Usage

To use the ion-autocomplete directive in single select mode you need to add the following snippet to your template:

// usage with the element restriction
<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" />

//usage with the attribute restriction
<input ion-autocomplete type="text" readonly="readonly" class="ion-autocomplete" autocomplete="off" />

If you want to use it in multiple select mode you need to add the following snippet to your template:

// usage with the element restriction
<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" multiple-select="true" />

//usage with the attribute restriction
<input ion-autocomplete type="text" readonly="readonly" class="ion-autocomplete" autocomplete="off" multiple-select="true" />

Check out the next chapter on how to configure the directive.

Configurable options

The items-method

You are able to pass in a callback method which gets called when the user changes the value of the search input field. This is normally a call to the back end which retrieves the items for the specified query. Here is a small sample which will return a static item of the query:

Define the callback in your scope:

$scope.callbackMethod = function (query) {
    return [query];
}

And set the items method on the directive:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" items-method="callbackMethod(query)" />

You are also able to return a promise from this callback method. For example:

$scope.callbackMethod = function (query) {
    return $http.get(endpoint);
}

Note that the parameter for the callbackMethod needs to be named query. Otherwise the callback will not get called properly. If you want to also retrieve the ComponentId then you need to add a second parameter called componentId:

$scope.callbackMethod = function (query, componentId) {
    if(componentId == "component1") {
        return $http.get(endpoint1);
    }
    return [query];
}

The items-method-value-key

You are able to set the items-method-value-key attribute which maps to a value of the returned data of the items-method. If for example your callback method returns the following object:

{
    "items" : [ {
        "name" : "item1"
    },{
        "name" : "item2"
    },
        ...
    ]
}

Then when you do not specify the items-method-value-key there will be no list displayed when you search for items in the search input field. You need to set the items-method-value-key to items such that the items are shown. If you right away return an array of items then you do not need to set the items-method-value-key.

The item-value-key

You are able to set the item-value-key attribute which maps to a value of the returned object from the items-method. The value is then saved in the defined ng-model. Here an example:

The items method returns the following object:

[
    {
        "id": "1",
        "name": "Item 1",
        ...
    }
    ...
]

And now you set the following item-value-key:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" item-value-key="id" />

Now when the user selects the Item 1 from the list, then the value of the objects id is stored in the ng-model. If no item-value-key is passed into the directive, the whole item object will be stored in the ng-model.

The item-view-value-key

You are able to set the item-view-value-key attribute which maps to a value of the returned object from the items-method. The value is then showed in both input fields. Here an example:

The items-method returns the following object:

[
    {
        "id": "1",
        "name": "Item 1",
        ...
    }
    ...
]

And now you set the following item-view-value-key:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" item-view-value-key="name" />

Now when the user selects the Item 1 from the list, then the value of the objects name is showed in both input fields. If no item-view-value-key is passed into the directive, the whole item object will be showed in both input fields.

The multiple-select

You are able to set the multiple-select attribute to true to enable the multiple select feature. Here an example:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" multiple-select="true" />

Then the user is able to select multiple items out of the returned items and also delete them again. The given ng-model is an array if multiple items are selected.

The items-clicked-method

You are able to pass a function to the items-clicked-method attribute to be notified when an item is clicked. The name of the parameter of the function must be callback. Here is an example:

Define the callback in your scope:

$scope.callbackMethod = function (callback) {
    // print out the selected item
    console.log(callback.item); 
    
    // print out the component id
    console.log(callback.componentId);
    
    // print out the selected items if the multiple select flag is set to true and multiple elements are selected
    console.log(callback.selectedItems); 
}

And pass in the callback method in the directive:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" items-clicked-method="callbackMethod(callback)" />

Then you get a callback object with the clicked/selected item and the selected items if you have multiple selected items (see The multiple-select).

Component Id

The component id is an attribute on the ion-autocomplete component which sets a given id to the component. This id is then returned in the callback object of the items-clicked-method and as a second parameter of the items-method. Here an example:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" component-id="component1" />`

You are able to set this is on each component if you have multiple components built up in a ng-repeat where you do not want to have multiple items-method for each component because you want to display other items in each component. You will also get it in the items-clicked-method callback object such that you just need to define one callback method and you can distinguish the calls with the componentId attribute right inside the method.

Placeholder

You are also able to set the placeholder on the input field and on the search input field if you add the placeholder attribute to the directive:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" placeholder="Enter the query to search for ..." />`

Cancel button label

You are also able to set the cancel button label (defaults to Cancel) if you add the cancel-label attribute to the directive:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" cancel-label="Go back" />`

Select items label

You are also able to set the select items label (defaults to Select an item...) if you add the select-items-label attribute to the directive:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" select-items-label="Select your items..." />`

Selected items label

You are also able to set the selected items label (defaults to Selected items:) if you add the selected-items-label attribute to the directive:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" selected-items-label="Selected:" />`

Template url

You are also able to set an own template for the autocomplete component (defaults to '') if you add the template-url attribute to the directive:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" template-url="templates/template.html" />`

This way you are able to override the default template (the searchContainerTemplate variable here) and use your own template. The component will use the default template if the template-url is not defined.

You are able to use all the configurable attributes as expressions in your template. I would advise to use the default template as base template and then add your custom additions to it.

Please also take care when you change how the items are shown or what method is called if an item is clicked, because changing this could make the component unusable.

The template itself will be loaded with the $ionicTemplateLoader and this will also use the Angular $templateCache.

Using expressions in value keys

All value keys are parsed with the Angular $parse service such that you are able to use expressions like in the following example:

[
    {
        "id": "1",
        "name": "Item 1",
        "child": {
            "name": "Child Item 1",
        }
        ...
    }
    ...
]

This would be the JSON model returned by the items-method and in the next snippet we define that we want to show the name attribute of the child object:

<ion-autocomplete ng-model="model" item-view-value-key="child.name" />

Release notes

Check them here: Release notes

Acknowledgements

When I first searched for an Ionic autocomplete component I just found the project from Danny. So please have a look at his ion-google-place project as this project here is a fork of it. At this point I want to thank him for his nice work.

License

This Ionic autocomplete directive is available under the MIT license.

(c) Danny Povolotski

(c) Modifications by Guy Brand