Twitter bootstrap typeahead multiple values?

Question

I'm using Twitter Bootstrap with Jquery. I want to use the TYPEAHEAD function for a textarea, which I got to work super easily. But I also need it to allow multiple selection.

By that I mean, after I selected one word from the autocomplete, it takes me back to textarea with an extra space afterwards and then if I start typing again, it offers me to do it again.

Here is a JS bin: http://jsbin.com/ewubuk/1/edit (Nothing special inside).

Is there an easy solution to allow multiple selection with typeahead? If yes, how?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Edit There already was a pull about that : https://github.com/twitter/bootstrap/pull/2007

---

You can approach the desired behavior by using a proxy for the typeahead : Demo (jsfiddle)

var $myTextarea = $('#myTextarea');

$('.typeahead').typeahead({
    source: source,
    updater: function(item) {
        $myTextarea.append(item, ' ');
        return '';
    }
});

I think the updater method is meant for this kind of thing, you just return what will be displayed.

---

Or if you really want everything to be in the same input element, you would have to override more methods so that it only matches the currently-typed element : Demo (jsfiddle)

function extractor(query) {
    var result = /([^,]+)$/.exec(query);
    if(result && result[1])
        return result[1].trim();
    return '';
}

$('.typeahead').typeahead({
    source: source,
    updater: function(item) {
        return this.$element.val().replace(/[^,]*$/,'')+item+',';
    },
    matcher: function (item) {
      var tquery = extractor(this.query);
      if(!tquery) return false;
      return ~item.toLowerCase().indexOf(tquery.toLowerCase())
    },
    highlighter: function (item) {
      var query = extractor(this.query).replace(/[\-\[\]{}()*+?.,\\\^$|#\s]/g, '\\$&')
      return item.replace(new RegExp('(' + query + ')', 'ig'), function ($1, match) {
        return '<strong>' + match + '</strong>'
      })
    }
});

This one is not idiot proof, because you have to type at the end, after the special character.

Answer 2

This is an excellent replacement for select boxes:

http://ivaynberg.github.io/select2/

(If you use the multi-value version.)

Answer 3

The top answer doesn't seem to work anymore with the latest typeahead, so I offer the following.

FIDDLE

function MultiTypeahead(id, data, trigger, vertAdjustMenu)
{
    trigger = (undefined !== trigger) ? trigger : '';
    var validChars = /^[a-zA-Z]+$/;


    function extractor(query)
    {
        var result = (new RegExp('([^,; \r\n]+)$')).exec(query);
        if(result && result[1])
            return result[1].trim();
        return '';
    }

    var lastUpper = false;
    function strMatcher(id, strs) 
    {
        return function findMatches(q, sync, async) 
        {
            var pos = $(id).caret('pos');
            q = (0 < pos) ? extractor(q.substring(0, pos)) : '';

            if (q.length <= trigger.length)
                return;

            if (trigger.length)
            {
                if(trigger != q.substr(0, trigger.length))
                    return;

                q = q.substr(trigger.length);
            }

            if (!q.match(validChars))
                return;

            var firstChar = q.substr(0, 1);
            lastUpper = (firstChar === firstChar.toUpperCase() && firstChar !== firstChar.toLowerCase());

            var cpos = $(id).caret('position');
            $(id).parent().find('.tt-menu').css('left', cpos.left + 'px');
            if (vertAdjustMenu)
                $(id).parent().find('.tt-menu').css('top', (cpos.top + cpos.height) + 'px');

            var matches = [];
            var matches = [], substrRegex = new RegExp(q, 'i');
            $.each(strs, function(i, str) 
            {
                if (str.length > q.length && substrRegex.test(str))
                    matches.push(str);
            });

            if (!matches.length)
                return;

            sync(matches);
        };
    };

    var lastVal = '';
    var lastPos = 0;
    function beforeReplace(event, data)
    {
        lastVal = $(id).val();
        lastPos = $(id).caret('pos');
        return true;
    }

    function onReplace(event, data)
    {            
        if (!data || !data.length)
            return;

        if (!lastVal.length)
            return;

        var root = lastVal.substr(0, lastPos);
        var post = lastVal.substr(lastPos);

        var typed = extractor(root);
        if (!lastUpper && typed.length >= root.length && 0 >= post.length)
            return;

        var str = root.substr(0, root.length - typed.length);

        str += lastUpper ? (data.substr(0, 1).toUpperCase() + data.substr(1)) : data;
        var cursorPos = str.length;

        str += post;

        $(id).val(str);
        $(id).caret('pos', cursorPos);      
    }

    this.typeahead = 
        $(id).typeahead({hint: false, highlight: false}, {'limit': 5, 'source': strMatcher(id, data)})
                .on('typeahead:beforeselect', beforeReplace)
                .on('typeahead:beforeautocomplete', beforeReplace)
                .on('typeahead:beforecursorchange', beforeReplace)
                .on('typeahead:selected', function(event,data){setTimeout(function(){ onReplace(event, data); }, 0);})
                .on('typeahead:autocompleted', onReplace)
                .on('typeahead:cursorchange', onReplace)
                ;
}

EDIT: Realizing the previous code had too much extra stuff, I narrowed it down to a minimal working example.

This is what was previously posted..