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# YUI Library Examples: AutoComplete Control: FunctionDataSource to Search Multiple Fields of an Address Book at Runtime

# AutoComplete Control: FunctionDataSource to Search Multiple Fields of an Address Book at Runtime

This example uses a FunctionDataSource to perform string matching against multiple fields of a contacts database at runtime. Since the data for this example is loaded into local memory, queries should be quite fast to return data, but use of the custom function allows a more complex search algorithm. A custom formatter allows users to see their search term within the result set. An itemSelectEvent handler is used to update the input field with a custom value and to populate a hidden form field with the selected contact's ID for eventually submitting back to a server.

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Find a contact:

## Sample Code

Data:

var myContacts = [ {id:0, fname:"Alice", lname:"Abrams", nname:"ace"}, {id:1, fname:"Abraham", lname:"Axelrod", nname:"Abe"}, {id:2, fname:"Bruce", lname:"Baxter", nname:null}, {id:3, fname:"Robert", lname:"Brown", nname:"Bob"}, {id:4, fname:"Carl", lname:"Carlson", nname:null}, {id:5, fname:"Charlie", lname:"Chaplin", nname:"Chuck"}, {id:6, fname:"Darla", lname:"Darling", nname:null}, {id:7, fname:"David", lname:"Dashing", nname:"Dave"}, {id:8, fname:"Egbert", lname:"Excellent", nname:null}, {id:9, fname:"Engleberg", lname:"Humperdink", nname:null} ];

CSS:

#myAutoComplete { width:15em; /* set width here or else widget will expand to fit its container */ padding-bottom:2em; } .match { font-weight:bold; }

Markup:

<label for="myInput">Find a contact:</label> <div id="myAutoComplete"> <input id="myInput" type="text"> <div id="myContainer"></div> <input id="myHidden" type="hidden"> </div>

JavaScript:

YAHOO.example.FnMultipleFields = function(){ var myContacts = [ {id:0, fname:"Alice", lname:"Abrams", nname:"ace"}, {id:1, fname:"Abraham", lname:"Axelrod", nname:"Abe"}, {id:2, fname:"Bruce", lname:"Baxter", nname:null}, {id:3, fname:"Robert", lname:"Brown", nname:"Bob"}, {id:4, fname:"Carl", lname:"Carlson", nname:null}, {id:5, fname:"Charlie", lname:"Chaplin", nname:"Chuck"}, {id:6, fname:"Darla", lname:"Darling", nname:null}, {id:7, fname:"David", lname:"Dashing", nname:"Dave"}, {id:8, fname:"Egbert", lname:"Excellent", nname:null}, {id:9, fname:"Engleberg", lname:"Humperdink", nname:null} ]; // Define a custom search function for the DataSource var matchNames = function(sQuery) { // Case insensitive matching var query = sQuery.toLowerCase(), contact, i=0, l=myContacts.length, matches = []; // Match against each name of each contact for(; i<l; i++) { contact = myContacts[i]; if((contact.fname.toLowerCase().indexOf(query) > -1) || (contact.lname.toLowerCase().indexOf(query) > -1) || (contact.nname && (contact.nname.toLowerCase().indexOf(query) > -1))) { matches[matches.length] = contact; } } return matches; }; // Use a FunctionDataSource var oDS = new YAHOO.util.FunctionDataSource(matchNames); oDS.responseSchema = { fields: ["id", "fname", "lname", "nname"] } // Instantiate AutoComplete var oAC = new YAHOO.widget.AutoComplete("myInput", "myContainer", oDS); oAC.useShadow = true; oAC.resultTypeList = false; // Custom formatter to highlight the matching letters oAC.formatResult = function(oResultData, sQuery, sResultMatch) { var query = sQuery.toLowerCase(), fname = oResultData.fname, lname = oResultData.lname, nname = oResultData.nname || "", // Guard against null value query = sQuery.toLowerCase(), fnameMatchIndex = fname.toLowerCase().indexOf(query), lnameMatchIndex = lname.toLowerCase().indexOf(query), nnameMatchIndex = nname.toLowerCase().indexOf(query), displayfname, displaylname, displaynname; if(fnameMatchIndex > -1) { displayfname = highlightMatch(fname, query, fnameMatchIndex); } else { displayfname = fname; } if(lnameMatchIndex > -1) { displaylname = highlightMatch(lname, query, lnameMatchIndex); } else { displaylname = lname; } if(nnameMatchIndex > -1) { displaynname = "(" + highlightMatch(nname, query, nnameMatchIndex) + ")"; } else { displaynname = nname ? "(" + nname + ")" : ""; } return displayfname + " " + displaylname + " " + displaynname; }; // Helper function for the formatter var highlightMatch = function(full, snippet, matchindex) { return full.substring(0, matchindex) + "<span class='match'>" + full.substr(matchindex, snippet.length) + "</span>" + full.substring(matchindex + snippet.length); }; // Define an event handler to populate a hidden form field // when an item gets selected and populate the input field var myHiddenField = YAHOO.util.Dom.get("myHidden"); var myHandler = function(sType, aArgs) { var myAC = aArgs[0]; // reference back to the AC instance var elLI = aArgs[1]; // reference to the selected LI element var oData = aArgs[2]; // object literal of selected item's result data // update hidden form field with the selected item's ID myHiddenField.value = oData.id; myAC.getInputEl().value = oData.fname + " " + oData.lname + (oData.nname ? " (" + oData.nname + ")" : ""); }; oAC.itemSelectEvent.subscribe(myHandler); return { oDS: oDS, oAC: oAC }; }();

## Configuration for This Example

You can load the necessary JavaScript and CSS for this example from Yahoo's servers. Click here to load the YUI Dependency Configurator with all of this example's dependencies preconfigured.

### YUI Logger Output:

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Reload with logging
and debugging disabled.

### AutoComplete Control Examples:

- Basic Local Data
- Basic Remote Data
- Screenreader Accessibility
- Customizing Remote Requests
- Custom Formatting, with a Proxyless Remote DataSource
- Searching Field A, Submitting Field B with itemSelectEvent
- Combobox, with CSS for Multiple Stacked Instances
- Tagging Example with alwaysShowContainer
- FunctionDataSource to Search Multiple Fields of an Address Book at Runtime
- Centering AutoComplete On a Page
- Subset Matching
- Find Photos on Flickr
- Configurations Dashboard
- Skinning Model
- Flickr Image Search (included with examples for Rich Text Editor)
- Logger Integration with YUI Components (included with examples for Logger Control)
- Datatable with Autocomplete (included with examples for DataTable Control)
- Complex Application (included with examples for Layout Manager)

### More AutoComplete Control Resources:

- User's Guide (external)
- API Documentation
- Cheat Sheet PDF (external)

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