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Autocomplete disallow free text entry?

Asked 2010-05-25T22:49:32.580
46

Is it possible to disallow free text entry in the JQuery UI autocomplete widget?

eg I only want the user to be allowed to select from the list of items that are presented in the autocomplete list, and dont want them to be able to write some random text.

I didn't see anything in the demos/docs describing how to do this.

http://jqueryui.com/demos/autocomplete/

I'm using autocomplete like this

$('#selector').autocomplete({
    source: url,
    minlength: 2,
    select: function (event, ui) {
        // etc
    }
jquery jquery-ui jquery-autocomplete
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2 Answers

92

According to the API documentation, the change event's ui property is null if the entry was not chosen from the list, so you can disallow free text as simply as this:

$('#selector').autocomplete({
    source: url,
    minlength: 2,
    change: function(event, ui) {
        if (ui.item == null) {
          event.currentTarget.value = ''; 
          event.currentTarget.focus();
        }
    }
});
answered 2013-03-29T13:58:06.447
10

If you want the user to just get the item from the list then use autocomplete combobox.

http://jqueryui.com/demos/autocomplete/#combobox

HTH

answered 2010-05-25T22:59:07.370

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