How do we set remote in Typeahead.js?

Question

In previous versions I could do:

$('#search').typeahead({
  name: 'Search',
  remote: '/search?query=%QUERY'
});

But since the 0.10 update, typeahead.js is asking us to define source which I cannot make to work. How do I define remote without having to define a dataset function?

Answer 1

Typeahead.js version 0.10.0 now uses a separate component called a suggestion engine for providing the suggestion data. The suggestion engine which ships with Typeahead.js is called Bloodhound.

Hence you cannot "define remote without having to define a dataset function".

An example of this working with a remote data source (I'm querying the TheMovieDb API, try searching for "Aliens" for example) can be found here:

http://jsfiddle.net/Fresh/UkB7u/

The code is here:

// Instantiate the Bloodhound suggestion engine
const movies = new Bloodhound({
  datumTokenizer: datum => Bloodhound.tokenizers.whitespace(datum.value),
  queryTokenizer: Bloodhound.tokenizers.whitespace,
  remote: {
    url: 'http://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/movie?query=%QUERY&api_key=f22e6ce68f5e5002e71c20bcba477e7d',
    // Map the remote source JSON array to a JavaScript object array
    filter: movies => $.map(movies.results, movie => ({
      value: movie.original_title
    }))
  }
});

// Initialize the Bloodhound suggestion engine
movies.initialize();

// Instantiate the Typeahead UI
$('.typeahead').typeahead(null, {
  displayKey: 'value',
  source: movies.ttAdapter()
});

Note how the filter function allows you to choose what you want to use as a typeahead suggestion from a non-trivial JSON data source.

---

Update for Typeahead 0.11.1

For those that are using the newer version of typeahead, a working example based off the original question can be found here:

http://jsfiddle.net/Fresh/bbzt9hcr/

With respect to Typeahead 0.10.0, the new version (0.11.1) has the following differences:

• The "filter" function has been renamed to "transform".
• No need to call initialize on the Bloodhound object, nor do we need to call ttAdapter() when assigning it to the remote source.
• Now need to specify the wildcard (e.g. %QUERY) within the remote options hash.

Answer 2

Well you can do something like:

$('input#keywords').typeahead({
    highlight: true,
},
{
  name: 'brands',
  display: 'value',
  source: function(query, syncResults, asyncResults) {
    $.get('/search?q=' + query, function(data) {
      asyncResults(data);
    });
  }
})

source: Using Typeahead.js without Bloodhound

Answer 3

If you want to use ajax POST data instead GET data for more controlled ajax calls, you may use this structure:

var meslekler = new Bloodhound({
    datumTokenizer: function (d) {
            return Bloodhound.tokenizers.whitespace(d.isim);
        },
    queryTokenizer: Bloodhound.tokenizers.whitespace,
    remote: {
        url: 'my_url_with_or_without_%query_token.php',
        ajax:{
            type:"POST",
            cache:false,
            data:{
                limit:5
            },
            beforeSend:function(jqXHR,settings){
                settings.data+="&q="+$('.tt-input').typeahead('val');
            },
            complete:function(jqXHR,textStatus){
            meslekler.clearRemoteCache();
            }
        }
    }
});
meslekler.initialize();
$('.typeahead').typeahead(null, {
    name:'meslekler',
    displayKey: 'isim',
    source: meslekler.ttAdapter()
});