#102 Auto-Complete Association

Apr 21, 2008 | 13 minutes | Ajax, Forms

Usually a select menu is used for setting a belongs_to association, but in this episode I will show you how to use a text field with auto completion.

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There is a newer version of this episode, see the revised episode.

Update: As Stephen Gerstacker pointed out in the comments, the :param_name option is preferred over the :with option. See the code below for an example.

          bash
        
script/plugin install git://github.com/rails/auto_complete.git

          product.rb
        
def category_name
  category.name if category
end

def category_name=(name)
  self.category = Category.find_or_create_by_name(name) unless name.blank?
end

          categories_controller.rb
        
def index
  @categories = Category.find(:all, :conditions => ['name LIKE ?', "%#{params[:search]}%"])
end

          products/_form.html.erb
        
<p>
  <%= f.label :category_name %>
  <%= text_field_with_auto_complete :product, :category_name, { :size => 15 }, { :url => formatted_categories_path(:js), :method => :get, :param_name => 'search' } %>
</p>

          categories/index.js.erb
        
<%= auto_complete_result @categories, :name %>