I'm using a <datalist>
<datalist id="items"></datalist>
And using AJAX to populate the list
function callServer (input) {
xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function(){
if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200){
//return the JSON object
console.log(xmlhttp.responseText);
var arr = JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText);
var parentDiv = document.getElementById('items');
parentDiv.innerHTML = "";
//fill the options in the document
for(var x = 0; x < arr.length; x++) {
var option = document.createElement('option');
option.value = arr[x][0];
option.innerHTML = arr[x][1];
//add each autocomplete option to the 'list'
option.addEventListener("click", function() {
console.log("Test");
});
parentDiv.appendChild(option);
};
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET", "incl/search.php?value="+input.value, true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
However I can't get it to perform an action when I click on a selection in the datalist, for example if I type in "Ref F" and the item "Ref flowers" comes up, if I click on it I need to execute an event.
How can I do this?
option.addEventListener("click", function() {
option.addEventListener("onclick", function() {
option.addEventListener("change", function() {
Sorry for digging up this question, but I've had a similar problem and have a solution, that should work for you, too.
function onInput() {
var val = document.getElementById("input").value;
var opts = document.getElementById('dlist').childNodes;
for (var i = 0; i < opts.length; i++) {
if (opts[i].value === val) {
// An item was selected from the list!
// yourCallbackHere()
alert(opts[i].value);
break;
}
}
}
<input type='text' oninput='onInput()' id='input' list='dlist' />
<datalist id='dlist'>
<option value='Value1'>Text1</option>
<option value='Value2'>Text2</option>
</datalist>
This solution is derived from Stephan Mullers solution. It should work with a dynamically populated datalist as well.
Unfortunaltely there is no way to tell whether the user clicked on an item from the datalist or selected it by pressing the tab-key or typed the whole string by hand.
Due to the lack of events available for <datalist>
elements, there is no way to a selection from the suggestions other than watching the input
's events (change
, input
, etc). Also see my answer here: Determine if an element was selected from HTML 5 datalist by pressing enter key
To check if a selection was picked from the list, you should compare each change to the available options. This means the event will also fire when a user enters an exact value manually, there is no way to stop this.
document.querySelector('input[list="items"]').addEventListener('input', onInput);
function onInput(e) {
var input = e.target,
val = input.value;
list = input.getAttribute('list'),
options = document.getElementById(list).childNodes;
for(var i = 0; i < options.length; i++) {
if(options[i].innerText === val) {
// An item was selected from the list!
// yourCallbackHere()
alert('item selected: ' + val);
break;
}
}
}
<input list="items" type="text" />
<datalist id="items">
<option>item 1</option>
<option>item 2</option>
</datalist>
Datalist don't support click listener and OnInput is very costly, checking everytime all the list if anything change.
What I did was using:
document.querySelector('#inputName').addEventListener("focusout", onInput);
FocusOut will be triggered everytime a client click the input text and than click anywhere else. If they clicked the text, than clicked somewhere else I assume they put the value they wanted.
To check if the value is valid you do the same as the input:
function onInput(e) {
var val = document.querySelector('#inputName').value;
options = document.getElementById('datalist').childNodes;
for(var i = 0; i < options.length; i++) {
if(options[i].innerText === val) {
console.log(val);
break;
}
}
}