The auto_complete plugin provides “live”, ajax based autocompletion for text input fields. Installation:
script/plugin install auto_complete
Usage (taken from README file in plugin):
# Controller
class BlogController < ApplicationController
auto_complete_for :post, :title
end
# View
<%= text_field_with_auto_complete :post, :title %>
Well, the features of the underlying scriptaculous javascript “class” are documented, right here on github.
To expand the previous example (from the README file), here's what you can do:
# View
<%= text_field_with_auto_complete :post, :title, {:size => 50}, {:min_chars => 3} %>
Put your html options (here, size) in the 3rd argument (a hash), and the options for the Ajax.Autocompleter in the 4th argument (also a hash). But do not use the camelized style: use underscores instead! Example: the original (javascript) option minChars becomes min_chars in your auto_complete helper.