Question

I would like to integrate Django, and the JavaScript prototype library to create an autocomplete feature for a form. Can anyone recommend a prototype feature that has been tried with Django? There is this code and also this and I’m wondering if anyone would recommend one over the other for use with Django. Thanks!

Answer 1

I downloaded the code from this site
and followed the directions there, which was straightforward. Just include the prototype.js, scriptaculous.js, and AutoComplete.js files. Then copy paste from the directions, and change the url from assets/ac.php?m=text&s= to ?m=text&s= or even just ?s= if one query parameter is all you need.

    <input type="text" id="my_ac3" name="my_ac" size="45" autocomplete="off"/> 
    <script type="text/javascript"> 
    new AutoComplete('my_ac3', '?s=', { delay: 0.25, resultFormat: AutoComplete.Options.RESULT_FORMAT_TEXT }); 
    </script>

On the server side, in your view function for that page, start the function with:

    if request.is_ajax():
        #match the users input here, perhaps using data from your database and/or regular expressions
        text = #response text to return, in my case since I chose Options.RESULT_FORMAT_TEXT as my resultFormat, it's a string where each autocomplete item is separated by '\n'
        return HttpResponse(text, mimetype='text/plain')  # mimetype is text here in my case

Then place the rest of the view function under an else clause.