How to programmatically inject search queries into Select2 v4?

Question

I've built a web-app using a Select2 search box, which connects to our backend via AJAX. The search box passes the query (say "APPLES") to the backend, which then updates the page. How do I programmatically inject search queries into the search box? I need to pass in the "val" so that select2 calls the backend via AJAX and updates the page. I'm sure this is obvious, but I couldn't find it in the documentation.

For example, instead of forcing a user to type "APPLES" into the search box, I would like the user to click a button and have the word "APPLES" automatically populated into the search field, and then have the page update.

Thanks!

---

Following Kevin's comment, I'm not in this state where the text is embedded in the searchbox and the selector has picked the correct item. How do I submit (or trigger) this request, I tried "keydown", "pressdown", "submit", "click" (which clears the box), etc.

Answer 1

Select2 used to provide a select2('search', 'term') helper method that would have assisted with this, but it was not brought over to Select2 4.0.0.

There are a couple of ways that this could be done, but in general they all follow the same pattern of steps

1. Open the Select2 dropdown
2. Enter the search text into the search box
3. Trigger the keyboard events necessary for Select2 to start searching (usually input)

So, right now, in Select2 4.0.0 the code to do that would look like

$('select').select2();

function select2_search ($el, term) {
  $el.select2('open');
  
  // Get the search box within the dropdown or the selection
  // Dropdown = single, Selection = multiple
  var $search = $el.data('select2').dropdown.$search || $el.data('select2').selection.$search;
  // This is undocumented and may change in the future
  
  $search.val(term);
  $search.trigger('keyup');
}

$('button').on('click', function () {
  var $select = $($(this).data('target'));
  select2_search($select, 'Arizona');
});

<link href="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/select2/4.0.0/css/select2.css" rel="stylesheet"/>

<script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.js"></script>
<script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/select2/4.0.0/js/select2.js"></script>

<select style="width: 200px;" id="single">
  <option value="AL">Alabama</option>
  <option value="AK">Alaska</option>
  <option value="AZ">Arizona</option>
</select>

<button type="button" data-target="#single">Search for 'Arizona'</button>
<br /><br />

<select style="width: 200px;" id="multiple" multiple="multiple">
  <option value="AL">Alabama</option>
  <option value="AK">Alaska</option>
  <option value="AZ">Arizona</option>
</select>

<button type="button" data-target="#multiple">Search for 'Arizona'</button>

While this example does not use AJAX, it will trigger an AJAX request if Select2 is configured for it.

Answer 2

for me triggering 'keyup' only worked when the user didn't select any option yet. What works every time is to trigger 'input' instead. (only tested on Chrome)

so based on Kevin Brown's answer:

$('select').select2();

function select2_search ($el, term) {
  $el.select2('open');

  // Get the search box within the dropdown or the selection
  // Dropdown = single, Selection = multiple
  var $search = $el.data('select2').dropdown.$search || $el.data('select2').selection.$search;
  // This is undocumented and may change in the future

  $search.val(term);
  $search.trigger('input');
}

$('button').on('click', function () {
  var $select = $($(this).data('target'));
  select2_search($select, 'Arizona');
});

Answer 3

The answers on this page got me almost there. And because others seem to have the same issues, I am sharing how I solved it.

Some of the comments on Kevin Browns answer asked how to simulate the ENTER after the text has been entered and is highlighted.

I managed to do that only with a timeout:

setTimeout(function() { $('.select2-results__option').trigger("mouseup"); }, 500);

So, the full solution would be this:

$('select').select2();

function select2_search ($el, term) {
  $el.select2('open');

  // Get the search box within the dropdown or the selection
  // Dropdown = single, Selection = multiple
  var $search = $el.data('select2').dropdown.$search || $el.data('select2').selection.$search;
  // This is undocumented and may change in the future

  $search.val(term);
  $search.trigger('input');
  setTimeout(function() { $('.select2-results__option').trigger("mouseup"); }, 500);

}

$('button').on('click', function () {
  var $select = $($(this).data('target'));
  select2_search($select, 'Arizona');
});

Answer 4

You can set minimumInputLength to 0 then in the data function you may check params.term length and if it's 0, set the filter value to your predefined search value.

It's quite silly, but it works ;)

Answer 5

As an addition to this answer, we were trying to programmatically add a new 'tag' to a select2 configured for tagging. Instead of triggering a keyup event on the $search box, we had to do the following.

$search.val(tag);
$search.closest('.select2-search--inline')
    .trigger($.Event('input', { which: 13 }));
$search.closest('.select2-selection--multiple')
    .trigger($.Event('keydown', { which: 13 }));

This first fires an event that causes the 'search' module in select2 to add a 'highlighted' result containing the tag text, then the second event causes select2 to fire the 'select' event internally which adds a new tag to the select2 options and may also trigger other stuff, depending on how you've configured it.

Answer 6

For those who is using Ajax call to populate select2 and want to search and set selected value.

There are other way you can you but this answer perfectly work for me with Select2 4.0.0

• To strike set I used deley function

JS

$('.select2').select2();

    function select2_search_and_set(controlId, term) {
var control = $("#" + controlId);
var $search = control.data('select2').dropdown.$search || control.data('select2').selection.$search;

$search.val(term);
$search.trigger('keyup');

setTimeout(function () {
    $search.trigger($.Event('keydown', { which: 13 }));
}, 500);
}

   select2_search_and_set("target", 'term');

Html

<select class="form-control select2" id="target" name="target"></select>

Answer 7

I was driving nuts, until I came to this thread. I wanted to have a select2 dialogue where user can enter a name that may not one of the options but I can still set it and is visible.

With the help of a combinations of answer form here, I managed to solve my problem.

To do this:

1. I first needed to set the tags option on select2 to true

2. There was no need to open select2

3. I needed to chnage the trigger from 'keyup' to 'input'

4. I needed to add the following line at the end to simulate enter key $('.select2-results__option').trigger("mouseup");

    Here is the jsfiddle sample for you to try for yourself
   

   https://jsfiddle.net/jainpankaj/o8g37wfu/8/#&togetherjs=I0e96aNexC