Adding values to jQuery autocomplete real time

Question

I\'m making a \"token input\" style checkbox with an autocomplete (user types in something, selects a response, which adds a \"token\" to the DOM view).

Using jQuery

Answer 1

This should work fine with autocomplete's change event. This code assumes there's a button with id add that appears when you want to add a new item to the list. It will not appear if the user selects an item from the list. There are some tweaks that can be made, but this proof of concept should make it possible:

var source = ["Apples", "Oranges", "Bananas"];

$(function () {
    $("#auto").autocomplete({
        source: function (request, response) {
            response($.ui.autocomplete.filter(source, request.term));
        },
        change: function (event, ui) {
            $("#add").toggle(!ui.item);
        }
    });

    $("#add").on("click", function () {
        source.push($("#auto").val());
        $(this).hide();
    });
});

Here's an example: http://jsfiddle.net/rmGqB/

---

Update: Sounds like I slightly misunderstood the requirement. You can also tap into the result that autocomplete would populate the candidate list with and drive the visibility of the button based on whether or not the results of the search yielded any exact matches:

var source = ["Apples", "Oranges", "Bananas"];

$(function () {
    $("#auto").autocomplete({
        source: function (request, response) {
            var result = $.ui.autocomplete.filter(source, request.term);

            $("#add").toggle($.inArray(request.term, result) < 0);

            response(result);
        }
    });

    $("#add").on("click", function () {
        source.push($("#auto").val());
        $(this).hide();
    });
});

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/VLLuJ/