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2

I am using Angular JS - ui.bootstrap.typeahead:

I would like to click a button and focus an input field and automatically show the typeahead suggestion dropdown. I have a directive that automatically focuses the input field when the button is clicked. How can I show the dropdown automatically so the user can use the down arrow, or click, to quickly choose a user?

I have created a Plunker with the ui-bootstrap JS file editable for tinkering:

http://plnkr.co/edit/Z79LY0OYlwFc3wirjxol?p=preview

This is my full script:

<!doctype html>
<html ng-app="plunker">
  <head>
    <link href="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.1.1/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.2/angular.js"></script>
    <script src="ui-bootstrap-tpls-0.10.0.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>

<script>
  angular.module('plunker', ['ui.bootstrap'])
  .directive('focusMe', function($timeout, $parse) {
    return {
        //scope: true,   // optionally create a child scope
        link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
            var model = $parse(attrs.focusMe);
            scope.$watch(model, function(value) {
                if(value === true) { 
                    $timeout(function() {
                        element[0].focus(); 
                    });
                }
            });

        }
    };
});
function TypeaheadCtrl($scope, $http) {

  $scope.selected = undefined;
  $scope.states = ['Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arizona', 'Arkansas', 'California', 'Colorado', 'Connecticut', 'Delaware', 'Florida', 'Georgia', 'Hawaii', 'Idaho', 'Illinois', 'Indiana', 'Iowa', 'Kansas', 'Kentucky', 'Louisiana', 'Maine', 'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Michigan', 'Minnesota', 'Mississippi', 'Missouri', 'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada', 'New Hampshire', 'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York', 'North Dakota', 'North Carolina', 'Ohio', 'Oklahoma', 'Oregon', 'Pennsylvania', 'Rhode Island', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota', 'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Vermont', 'Virginia', 'Washington', 'West Virginia', 'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming'];
  $scope.opened = false;

  $scope.open = function() {
    $scope.opened = true;
  }
  $scope.close = function() {
    $scope.opened = false;
  }
}

</script>
<div class='container-fluid' ng-controller="TypeaheadCtrl">

    <h4>How can I open the typeahead dropdown automatically when button is pressed?</h4>
    <p>I have a directive that automatically focuses on the field but I can't seem to automatically show the typeahead. Even adding down arrow key click support would be great.

    <br/><br/>

    <button class="btn btn-default" ng-show="!opened" ng-click="open()">Open Input and show typeahead!</button>
    <button class="btn btn-default" ng-show="opened" ng-click="close()">Close Input</button>
    <br/><br/>

    <input type="text"
    focus-me="opened"
    ng-show="opened"
    ng-model="selected" 
    typeahead="state for state in states | filter:$viewValue | limitTo:8" 
    class="form-control">


    <br/>
    <pre ng-show="opened">Model: {{selected | json}}</pre>


</div>
  </body>
</html>
share|improve this question
    
that is a feature request asking this to be a standard feature... and the solution suggested was to have typeahead-min-length="0" to enable it, not able to find the exact link right now, but just search for angular ui issue and you will mostly get it.. link –  HarishR Jul 15 at 18:58

2 Answers 2

up vote 3 down vote accepted

As HarishR mentioned in a comment, there is no built-in support for this feature yet.

But I just want to try hacking around and here is the result: http://plnkr.co/edit/Qrnat8yTvISuM1qHHDlA?p=preview

It contains a lot of hacks to make it works:

  1. include jQuery in order to use .trigger(), could be replace with native JS but I'm lazy.
  2. use ng-focus to call .trigger('input') for triggering the typehead popup
  3. use ng-trim="false" to disable input's value auto trimming

  4. a custom empty-typeahead directive that interact with the ngModel's controller for applying the secretEmptyKey logic to bypass typeahead-min-length check:

    .directive('emptyTypeahead', function () {
  return {
    require: 'ngModel',
    link: function (scope, element, attrs, modelCtrl) {
      // this parser run before typeahead's parser
      modelCtrl.$parsers.unshift(function (inputValue) {
        var value = (inputValue ? inputValue : secretEmptyKey); // replace empty string with secretEmptyKey to bypass typeahead-min-length check
        modelCtrl.$viewValue = value; // this $viewValue must match the inputValue pass to typehead directive
        return value;
      });

      // this parser run after typeahead's parser
      modelCtrl.$parsers.push(function (inputValue) {
        return inputValue === secretEmptyKey ? '' : inputValue; // set the secretEmptyKey back to empty string
      });
    }
  }
})

  5. a custom filter comparator function that always return true (show all results) when one argument is the secretEmptyKey:

    $scope.stateComparator = function (state, viewValue) {
  return viewValue === secretEmptyKey || (''+state).toLowerCase().indexOf((''+viewValue).toLowerCase()) > -1;
};

  6. remove the limitTo filter to show all results

  7. set max-height and overflow css properties to show scrollbar if content is too long

Done!

share|improve this answer
    
You sir have made me a very happy man! I've been trying to get this working for weeks, and tried loads of different things. This is a great answer, thank you so much :) –  Holland Risley Jul 15 at 21:50
    
Your welcome : ) –  runTarm Jul 16 at 2:47
up vote 2 down vote

I got a working solution by changing some code in ui-bootstrap-tpls-0.10.0.js. So there are no differences in the typeahead html markup.

You can have a look here at http://plnkr.co/edit/LXHDpL?p=preview.

To use this fix, use the ui-bootstrap-tpls-0.10.0.js from the Plunk. To see my changes, open ui-bootstrap-tpls-0.10.0.js from the Plunk and search for 'ahneo'.

 1. //minimal no of characters that needs to be entered before typeahead
    kicks-in
    // ahneo :: before
    //var minSearch = originalScope.$eval(attrs.typeaheadMinLength) || 1;
    // ahneo :: after (changed minimal no of characters to 0 by default)
    var minSearch = originalScope.$eval(attrs.typeaheadMinLength) || 0;
 2. // ahneo :: new (set input value to empty string if it contains " " string value)
    if (inputValue === ' ') {
        inputValue = '';
        modelCtrl.$setViewValue('');
    }  
 3. // ahneo :: before
    //if (inputValue && inputValue.length >= minSearch) {
    // ahneo :: after (add new condition to get matches for min search = 0)
    if (minSearch === 0 || inputValue && inputValue.length >= minSearch) {
 4. // ahneo :: new (bind element to focus event to trigger modelCtrl.$parsers.unshift method)
    element.bind('focus', function (evt) {
        if (modelCtrl.$viewValue === '') {
            modelCtrl.$setViewValue(' ');
        }
    });

Hope this helps

share|improve this answer
    
This works in .11 as well! Also, I had to combine your solution with the ng-focus from runTarm's solution to trigger the event. Plnkr here: plnkr.co/edit/kpl4EE?p=preview –  Yoshi9143 Sep 5 at 12:17

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