RoR 3.2.8: Is there an HTML5 combobox helper?

Question

Right now, I'm using the form_for.select and options_for_select rails helpers to create a select box with the data from the model. However, what I really need is a combobox like the one introduced with HTML5:

<input type=text list=browsers >
<datalist id=browsers >
   <option> Google
   <option> IE9
</datalist> 

Is there a rails helper for creating such elements?

Answer 1

No, but it's quite easy to setup your own form builder helper method to achieve such a result, a simple example would be:

app/form_builders/combobox_form_builder.rb

 class ComboboxFormBuilder < ActionView::Helpers::FormBuilder
  include ActionView::Context # for nested content_tag
  include ActionView::Helpers::FormTagHelper #for sanitize_to_id method access

  def combobox_tag(name, options, opts= {})
     @template.content_tag(:input, :name => name, :id => sanitize_to_id(name), :type => "text", :list => opts[:list_id]) do
       content_tag(:datalist, :id => opts[:list_id]) {options}
     end    
  end    
end

After restarting your server you can implement your new combobox using the form builder by specifying a builder argument in your form_for call:

<%= form_for @foo, builder: ComboboxFormBuilder do |f| %>
    <%= f.combobox_tag(:browser, options_for_select(["Firefox", "Chrome", "IE9"]), :list_id => "list")%>
<% end %>

Output HTML:

<input type="text" name="browser" list="list" id="browser">
<datalist id="list">
  <option value="Firefox">Firefox</option>
  <option value="Chrome">Chrome</option>
  <option value="IE9">IE9</option>
</datalist>

Keep in mind that both IE & Safari do not offer support for the HTML5 Datalist.

Answer 2

<%= form_for @person do |f| %>
  <%= f.label :first_name, "First Name" %>:
  <%= f.text_field :first_name, list: 'first-name' %>
  <datalist id="first-name">
    <% Person.all.each do |person| %>
      <option value="<%= person.first_name %>"></option>
    <% end %>
  </datalist>
  <%= f.submit %>
<% end %>

You may also want to do distinct:

<% Person.select(:first_name).distinct.each do |person| %>