flexselect: a jQuery plugin
FlexSelect is a jQuery plugin that turns select boxes into flex-matching incremental-finding controls.
Flex matching a few keystrokes against longer strings is a boon in productivity for typists. Applications like Quicksilver, LaunchBar, and Launchy have made this method of keyboard entry a popular one. It's time to bring this same functionality to web controls. FlexSelect does that for select boxes.
Usage
First, load jQuery, the LiquidMetal scoring algorithm, and the plugin:
<script src="jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="liquidmetal.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="jquery.flexselect.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
Now, let's attach it to your select boxes on DOM ready:
<pre>
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
jQuery("select.flexselect).flexselect();
});
</pre>
This will turn all select elements with a class of flexselect:
<select class="flexselect" id="president name="president">
<option value="1">George Washington</option>
<option value="2">John Adams</option>
<option value="3">Thomas Jefferson</option>
...
</select>
into a bad-ass autocompleting text box with flex matching support.
For more usage and examples: http://rmm5t.github.io/jquery-flexselect/
Inspired by:
- jQuery.quickselect by Daniel Parker
- MooTools Select Autocompleter by Kyle Neath
- Live Search with QuickSilver Style (for jQuery) by John Nunemaker
- jQuery LiveSearch by John Resig
Todo
- Review the "picked" logic
- Add templating support for matched list output.
- Add highlighting of matched characters in the results.
- Consider support for optgroup tags