Question

I have use rails3-jquery-autocomplete plugin and I am just wondering how can I use it to do multiple words autocomplete.

e.g. INPUT rails, gem
it should generate auto-list twice.

How to solve this problem?..

Answer 1

rails3-jquery-autocomplete plugin? It seems that it doesn’t support multiple autocomplete, you need to modify the plugin code!!
If you insist on your former ideas, follow my steps.

1. run bundle show rails3-jquery-autocomplete to get the plugin working directroy
2. mate /lib/autocomplete.rb

3. modify the define_method like this:

   define_method("autocomplete_#{object}_#{method}") do
     arr = params[:term].split(",")
     unless params[:term] && params[:term].empty?
       items = object.to_s.camelize.constantize.where(["LOWER(#{method}) LIKE ?", "#{arr[arr.size-1]}%"]).limit(limit).order(order)
     else
       items = {}
   end
   
   render :json => json_for_autocomplete(items, method)
   

   end

4. modify autocomplete-rails.js like this
   
function split(val) {
return val.split(/,\s*/);
}
function extractLast(term) {
return split(term).pop();
}
$(document).ready(function(){
$('input[autocomplete]').each(function(i){
$(this).autocomplete({
source: $(this).attr('autocomplete'),
focus: function() {
return false;
},
select: function(event, ui) {
var terms = split( this.value );
// remove the current input
terms.pop();
// add the selected item
terms.push( ui.item.value );
// add placeholder to get the comma-and-space at the end
terms.push("");
this.value = terms.join(",");
return false;
}
});
});
});


5. restart your server and try

!! remember you’d better backup autocomplete.rb to avoid overwrite after you run bundle install.

Good luck!