twitter bootstrap typeahead ajax example

Question

Edit: typeahead is no longer bundled in Bootstrap 3. Check out:

• Where is the typeahead JavaScript module in Bootstrap 3 RC 1?
• typeahead.js

As of Bootstrap 2.1.0 up to 2.3.2, you can do this:

$('.typeahead').typeahead({
    source: function (query, process) {
        return $.get('/typeahead', { query: query }, function (data) {
            return process(data.options);
        });
    }
});

To consume JSON data like this:

{
    "options": [
        "Option 1",
        "Option 2",
        "Option 3",
        "Option 4",
        "Option 5"
    ]
}

Note that the JSON data must be of the right mime type (application/json) so jQuery recognizes it as JSON.

You can use the BS Typeahead fork which supports ajax calls. Then you will be able to write:

$('.typeahead').typeahead({
    source: function (typeahead, query) {
        return $.get('/typeahead', { query: query }, function (data) {
            return typeahead.process(data);
        });
    }
});

Starting from Bootstrap 2.1.0:

HTML:

<input type='text' class='ajax-typeahead' data-link='your-json-link' />

Javascript:

$('.ajax-typeahead').typeahead({
    source: function(query, process) {
        return $.ajax({
            url: $(this)[0].$element[0].dataset.link,
            type: 'get',
            data: {query: query},
            dataType: 'json',
            success: function(json) {
                return typeof json.options == 'undefined' ? false : process(json.options);
            }
        });
    }
});

Now you can make a unified code, placing "json-request" links in your HTML-code.

All of the responses refer to BootStrap 2 typeahead, which is no longer present in BootStrap 3.

For anyone else directed here looking for an AJAX example using the new post-Bootstrap Twitter typeahead.js, here's a working example. The syntax is a little different:

$('#mytextquery').typeahead({
  hint: true,
  highlight: true,
  minLength: 1
},
{
  limit: 12,
  async: true,
  source: function (query, processSync, processAsync) {
    processSync(['This suggestion appears immediately', 'This one too']);
    return $.ajax({
      url: "/ajax/myfilter.php", 
      type: 'GET',
      data: {query: query},
      dataType: 'json',
      success: function (json) {
        // in this example, json is simply an array of strings
        return processAsync(json);
      }
    });
  }
});

This example uses both synchronous (the call to processSync) and asynchronous suggestion, so you'd see some options appear immediately, then others are added. You can just use one or the other.

There are lots of bindable events and some very powerful options, including working with objects rather than strings, in which case you'd use your own custom display function to render your items as text.

I've augmented the original typeahead Bootstrap plugin with ajax capabilities. Very easy to use:

$("#ajax-typeahead").typeahead({
     ajax: "/path/to/source"
});

Here's the github repo: Ajax-Typeahead

I did some modifications on the jquery-ui.min.js:

//Line 319 ORIG:
this.menu=d("<ul></ul>").addClass("ui-autocomplete").appendTo(d(...
// NEW:
this.menu=d("<ul></ul>").addClass("ui-autocomplete").addClass("typeahead").addClass("dropdown-menu").appendTo(d(...

// Line 328 ORIG:
this.element.addClass("ui-menu ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-corner-all").attr...
// NEW:this.element.attr....

// Line 329 ORIG:
this.active=a.eq(0).children("a")
this.active.children("a")
// NEW:
this.active=a.eq(0).addClass("active").children("a")
this.active.removeClass("active").children("a")`

and add following css

.dropdown-menu {
    max-width: 920px;
}
.ui-menu-item {
    cursor: pointer;        
}

Works perfect.

I am using this method

$('.typeahead').typeahead({
    hint: true,
    highlight: true,
    minLength: 1
},
    {
    name: 'options',
    displayKey: 'value',
    source: function (query, process) {
        return $.get('/weather/searchCity/?q=%QUERY', { query: query }, function (data) {
            var matches = [];
            $.each(data, function(i, str) {
                matches.push({ value: str });
            });
            return process(matches);

        },'json');
    }
});