Question

I am using JSP with HTML.

In HTML, I have a textbox and a multiple select element. I would like to filter the options in the select list as the user types in the textbox.

I found a useful JQuery code on this stackoveflow page:
How to dynamic filter options of <select > with jQuery?

Here’s the code:

<script>
jQuery.fn.filterByText = function(textbox) {
    return this.each(function() {
        var select = this;
        var options = [];
        $(select).find('option').each(function() {
            options.push({value: $(this).val(), text: $(this).text()});
        });
        $(select).data('options', options);

        $(textbox).bind('change keyup', function() {
            var options = $(select).empty().data('options');
            var search = $.trim($(this).val());
            var regex = new RegExp(search,"gi");

            $.each(options, function(i) {
                var option = options[i];
                if(option.text.match(regex) !== null) {
                    $(select).append(
                        $('<option>').text(option.text).val(option.value)
                    );
                }
            });
        });
    });
};

</script>

You could use it like this:

<script>
$(function() {
    $('select').filterByText($('input'));
});
</script>

The problem is that this code only works when the options in the select element is hard coded.
By hard coded I mean like this:

<option value="something">something</option>
<option value="something">something</option>

However, in my case, I have a list of around 6000 values that I am adding to the select list using a java code. Here’s that java code:

<%
 ArrayList<String> allGenes= new ArrayList<String>();
   allGenes.addAll(tree.getAllGenes()); 

     %>

      <%
       for(int i=0; i<allGenes.size(); i++)
       { %>
       var gene=document.createElement('option');
       var str="<%=allGenes.get(i)%>";
       gene.text= str;
       try
        {
            document.getElementById("inputSet1").add(gene,null);
        }
         catch(ex){
                  document.getElementById("inputSet1").add(gene);                             
         }
       <%}%>         

The JQuery code that filters the elements in the select list doesn’t filter these values that i add using java code. Instead, it deletes all of them because these values are not hard coded.

Here’s my textbox and my select element:

 <input type="text" name="text" id="text" style="position: absolute; top: 50px; left: 55px; width: 200px; height: 22px; right: 4px">

<select  id="inputSet1" multiple="multiple" Style="position: absolute; top: 93px; left: 55px; width: 200px; height: 200px; right: 4px; overflow-y: scroll">
    <option value="1">1</option> </select>

Can anyone help me to make my code filters the values I add. Thank you.

Answer 1

It looks like the quick fix is to invoke filterByText after you have populated the option list.

<%
 ArrayList<String> allGenes= new ArrayList<String>();
   allGenes.addAll(tree.getAllGenes()); 

 %>

  <%
   for(int i=0; i<allGenes.size(); i++)
   { %>
   var gene=document.createElement('option');
   var str="<%=allGenes.get(i)%>";
   gene.text= str;
   try
    {
        document.getElementById("inputSet1").add(gene,null);
    }
     catch(ex){
              document.getElementById("inputSet1").add(gene);                             
     }
   <%}%>  
$('inputSet1').filterByText($('input'));

For the long term, I suggest you look into ajax. You would probably be better off passing data (in a format such as JSON) instead of writing java code that generates javascript code.