[RFR] Send API request on reference auto-complete

[jpetitcolas]

Instead of having a pre-define set of choices in reference fields, send API requests at will to fetch related records.

Left tasks:

• Implement API auto-complete on single reference fields (post id)
• Display correctly selected value
• Implement API auto-complete on multiple reference fields (tags)
• Implement tests
• If no fields configured, disable refresh and populate with all data (for BC)
• Update admin-config repository to deal with refreshDelay
• Update documentation
• Update blog sample configuration
• Test it on real world project

[fzaninotto]

You don't need parentheses for a single argument

[jpetitcolas]

Switching to RFR. I still need to test it on a real world project before merging.

[jpetitcolas]

Tested on real world project. Seems to work. Removing the [DO NOT MERGE].

[fzaninotto]

I'm surprised this works, I had to return a function because Angular complained about an infinite look. Needs further testing.

[fzaninotto]

If you have to put some API fetching logic in a directive, please move it to a service.

[fzaninotto]

Something bothers me: users can't opt out for ajax autocompletion. That means that if their API doesn't implement the search query param, reference fields cease to work. This is a serious BC break.

Autocomplete should be opt-in ; the default behavior should still be to fetch all possible values, and only autocomplete locally.

[jpetitcolas]

Actually, this is already dealt through the field.refreshDelay parameter. If it's null, then all choices would be retrieved, the same as before my changes.

I put the API request behavior by default, as it sounds more logical to me for references. Indeed, user doesn't know how many records there is remotely. And it is more probable that there is a lot. It would then be limited by the perPage parameter.

This is indeed a BC break, but it improves the component behavior IMO.

[jpetitcolas]

As seen with @fzaninotto, we'll set refreshDelay to null by default.

[fzaninotto]

Moreover, you must make it more explicit that in the doc that a Reference is populated by the entire list of references, and that if the developer wants to use autocomplete, they should set the refreshdelay to something more than null.

[jpetitcolas]

Refresh logic moved to a dedicated service. Ready for another review.

[jeromemacias]

Is it possible to disable first request (in routing) for retrieving references values in case of refreshDelay is not null ?
Something like view.getReferencesWithNoRefreshDelay().

[jpetitcolas]

Back to WIP for optimizing number of sent requests and to fix autocomplete, which seems to be made only on local records.

[jpetitcolas]

Ready for review.

Failing tests are due to the admin-config PR.

[jeromemacias]

👍

[fzaninotto]

Great work, thanks a lot!

[endel]

Hey guys!

Is there any way to get the Field reference inside the filters function?
It seems that the scope gets complete lost when the function is called.

Check out this example:

...
let field = nga.field(singular + "_id", 'reference').
  targetEntity(entities[plural]).
  targetField(nga.field(label_field)).
  filters(function(search) {
    console.log(field) // <= Uncaught ReferenceError: field is not defined
  }).
  remoteComplete(true, { refreshDelay: 300 }).
  singleApiCall(aggregateIds);

What could I do?

[fzaninotto]

@endel: not for now. But this reference.filters() method needs an overhaul anyway.

[fzaninotto]

reference.filters() has just been renamed to reference.permanentFilters() (refs #588).

@endel I can't reproduce your issue. Could it be due to babel translation? What if you use a var instead?