jquery: prepopulating autocomplete fields
- by David Tildon
I'm using the tokenizing autocomplete plugin for jquery ( http://loopj.com/2009/04/25/jquery-plugin-tokenizing-autocomplete-text-entry ). I mostly use Ruby, and I'm really unfamiliar with javascript, though.
My basic setup looks like this, and works fine for a new, blank form:
$(document).ready(function () {
$("#tag_ids_field").tokenInput("/tags", {
queryParam: "search"
});
});
The problem comes when I try to prepopulate it, like for an edit page. I'm trying to do something like this (where the "#tag_ids_field" text box contains the JSON when the page is loaded - that way is just cleaner on the application side of things).
$(document).ready(function () {
var tags = $("#tag_ids_field").html();
$("#tag_ids_field").tokenInput("/tags", {
queryParam: "search",
prePopulate: tags
});
});
However, when the page loads I see that it's just filled with hundreds of entries that read 'undefined'. I get this even if I take the JSON output that Rails provides and try sticking it right in the .js file:
$(document).ready(function () {
$("#tag_ids_field").tokenInput("/tags", {
queryParam: "search",
prePopulate: "[{\"id\":\"44\",\"name\":\"omnis sit impedit et numquam voluptas enim\"},{\"id\":\"515\",\"name\":\"deserunt odit id doloremque reiciendis aliquid qui vel\"},{\"id\":\"943\",\"name\":\"exercitationem numquam possimus quasi iste nisi illum\"}]"
});
});
That's obviously not a solution, I just tried it out of frustration and I get the same behavior.
My two questions:
One, why are my text boxes being filled with "undefined" tags when I try to prepopulate, and how can I get them to prepopulate successfully?
Two, I'm planning on having many autocomplete fields like this on the same page (for when several records are edited at once - they all query the same place). How can I make each autocomplete field take it's prepopulated values from it's own textbox? Something like (applying these settings to all input boxes with a certain class, not just the one of a particular id):
$(document).ready(function () {
$(".tag_ids_field").tokenInput("/tags", {
queryParam: "search",
prePopulate: (the contents of that particular ".tag_ids_field" input box)
});
});