AutoComplete Plugin

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.