Can't make jQuery autocomplete widget work with Flask framework. (http://jqueryui.com/autocomplete/#remote here is an example)
In manage.py I got the following :
@app.route('/autocomplete', methods=['GET'])
def autocomplete():
results = []
search = request.args.get('autocomplete')
for mv in db_session.query(Movie.title).filter(Movie.title.like('%' + str(search) + '%')).all():
results.append(mv[0])
return jsonify(json_list=results)
My index.html file:
<head>
...
<link href="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.2/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" rel="Stylesheet"></link>
<script src="../static/js/jquery.js"></script>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.2/jquery-ui.js" ></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$.ajax({
url: '{{ url_for("autocomplete") }}'
}).done(function (data) {
$('#autocomplete').autocomplete({
source: data.json_list,
minLength: 2
});
});
});
</script>
...
</head>
<body>
...
<div>
<input name="autocomplete" type="text" id="autocomplete" class="form-control input-lg"/>
</div>
...
</body>
Looks like dev tools in firefox don't return any errors. The terminal returns the following:
"GET /autocomplete HTTP/1.1" 200 -
"GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 -
"GET /static/css/bootstrap.css HTTP/1.1" 304 -
"GET /static/js/jquery.js HTTP/1.1" 304 -
The widget just doesn't work. Since I don't know much about jQuery I can't figure out what causes the problem. Can anybody help me please ?
Below is working JS/jQuery and Flask code:
@app.route('/autocomplete', methods=['GET'])
def autocomplete():
search = request.args.get('q')
query = db_session.query(Movie.title).filter(Movie.title.like('%' + str(search) + '%'))
results = [mv[0] for mv in query.all()]
return jsonify(matching_results=results)
HTML/jQuery:
<head>
<link href="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.2/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" rel="Stylesheet"></link>
<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-2.2.0.min.js"></script>
<script src="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.2/jquery-ui.js" ></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$("#autocomplete").autocomplete({
source:function(request, response) {
$.getJSON("{{url_for('autocomplete')}}",{
q: request.term, // in flask, "q" will be the argument to look for using request.args
}, function(data) {
response(data.matching_results); // matching_results from jsonify
});
},
minLength: 2,
select: function(event, ui) {
console.log(ui.item.value); // not in your question, but might help later
}
});
})
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<input name="autocomplete" type="text" id="autocomplete" class="form-control input-lg"/>
</div>
</body>
A bit of explanation is in order: 'q' is your search term argument name as defined in jQuery's $.getJSON ajax call. That's passed to flask, and picked up using request.args.get
. The database query is constructed from that, and a list comprehension is used to construct the results. Note that with list comprehensions you don't initialize the list, nor do you use a for+append combination; one elegant line does everything.
Next, jsonify returns the list results
wrapped as a dictionary with the key matching_results
holding the results list. Do not be tempted to use json.dumps
to return a list to your ajax call. See here why (TL/DR: security concerns).
Note also that i've deliberately changed some variable names so you could tell what script/flask function 'sees' which variable. E.g., the ajax call doesn't see the list results
, it sees matching_results
. And that's inside (now javascript's) data
object.
To grab the list matching_results
is the key for, use the pattern in the attached script. It's messier than simply sending a list, but more secure, and eventually will allow you to do more sophisticated things on the client-side using JS/jquery.
Finally, the select
option prints the user's selection to the developer console, just for reference so you can actually respond to a user's selection.
For a more complete jquery-autocomplete example see the 'Load Data with AJAX' section here.
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With