Make Autocomplete search using jQuery UI in Laravel 7

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Autocomplete is a user-friendly way to display a large list of data on a page.

It shows suggestions based on the input and a user can select an option from the list.

In this tutorial, I show how you add jQuery UI autocomplete to an input field in the Laravel 7 project.

Make Autocomplete search using jQuery UI in Laravel 7

Contents

  1. Create Table
  2. Download
  3. Model
  4. Route
  5. Controller
  6. View
  7. Output
  8. Conclusion

1. Create Table

  • Create a new table Employees using migration and add some records.
php artisan make:migration create_employees_table
  • Now, navigate to database/migrations/ folder from the project root.
  • Find a PHP file that ends with create_employees_table and open it.
  • Define the table structure in the up() method.
public function up()
{
    Schema::create('employees', function (Blueprint $table) {
       $table->bigIncrements('id');
       $table->string('name');
       $table->string('email');
       $table->timestamps();
    });
}
  • Run the migration –
php artisan migrate
  • The table is been created and add some records in it.

2. Download

  • Download jQuery UI from its website and also download the jQuery library.
  • Copy download files in public/ folder.
  • I have copied jQuery UI library in public/jqueryui/ folder.

3. Model

  • Create Employees Model.
php artisan make:model Employees
  • Specify mass assignable Model attributes – name, and email using the $fillable property.

Completed Code

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Employees extends Model
{

   protected $fillable = [
     'name','email'
   ];

}

4. Route

  • Open routes/web.php file.
  • Define 2 routes –
Route::get('/','EmployeesController@index');
Route::post('/employees/getEmployees/','EmployeesController@getEmployees')->name('employees.getEmployees');
  • The 2nd route is used for AJAX request.

5. Controller

  • Create EmployeesController Controller.
php artisan make:controller EmployeesController
  • Open app/Http/Controllers/EmployeesController.php file.
  • Import Employees Model.
  • Create two methods –
    • index() – Load employees.index view.
    • getEmployees() – This use to handle AJAX request. Read POST search value and assign in $search.

If $search is empty then select first 5 records from the employees table otherwise use $search in where on the name field and select first 5 records.

Loop on the fetched records. Pass $employee->id in value key and $employee->name in label key.

Return $response Array in JSON format.

Completed Code

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Employees;

class EmployeesController extends Controller
{
   public function index(){
      return view('employees.index');
   }

   /*
   AJAX request
   */
   public function getEmployees(Request $request){

      $search = $request->search;

      if($search == ''){
         $employees = Employees::orderby('name','asc')->select('id','name')->limit(5)->get();
      }else{
         $employees = Employees::orderby('name','asc')->select('id','name')->where('name', 'like', '%' .$search . '%')->limit(5)->get();
      }

      $response = array();
      foreach($employees as $employee){
         $response[] = array("value"=>$employee->id,"label"=>$employee->name);
      }

      return response()->json($response);
   }
}

6. View

Create file –

  • Create a new folder employees at resources/views/ folder.
  • In resources/views/employees/ folder create a new index.blade.php file.

Include CSS and JS –

  • Specify csrf_token() in the <meta >.
  • Include jQuery UI CSS, jQuery, and jQuery UI JS at the <head > section.

Input fields –

  • Create two input fields.
  • 1st is used to initialize jQuery UI autocomplete.
  • 2nd is used to display the selected value from the autocomplete suggestion option.

Script –

  • Read csrf_token() from meta tag and assign in CSRF_TOKEN variable.
  • Initialize jQuery UI autocomplete on #employee_search field.
  • Using source option to send AJAX post request to route('employees.getEmployees') to fetch employees list for displaying.
  • Also, pass CSRF_TOKEN along with search value in the data.
  • On successful callback pass response in response() function.
  • Using select option to display selected option label in the #employee_search and value in #employeeid input fields.

Completed Code

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Make Autocomplete search using jQuery UI in Laravel 7</title>

    <!-- Meta -->
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token() }}">

    <!-- CSS -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{{asset('jqueryui/jquery-ui.min.css')}}">

    <!-- Script -->
    <script src="{{asset('jquery-3.3.1.min.js')}}" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="{{asset('jqueryui/jquery-ui.min.js')}}" type="text/javascript"></script>

  </head>
  <body>

    <!-- For defining autocomplete -->
    <input type="text" id='employee_search'>

    <!-- For displaying selected option value from autocomplete suggestion -->
    <input type="text" id='employeeid' readonly>

    <!-- Script -->
    <script type="text/javascript">

    // CSRF Token
    var CSRF_TOKEN = $('meta[name="csrf-token"]').attr('content');
    $(document).ready(function(){

      $( "#employee_search" ).autocomplete({
        source: function( request, response ) {
          // Fetch data
          $.ajax({
            url:"{{route('employees.getEmployees')}}",
            type: 'post',
            dataType: "json",
            data: {
               _token: CSRF_TOKEN,
               search: request.term
            },
            success: function( data ) {
               response( data );
            }
          });
        },
        select: function (event, ui) {
           // Set selection
           $('#employee_search').val(ui.item.label); // display the selected text
           $('#employeeid').val(ui.item.value); // save selected id to input
           return false;
        }
      });

    });
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

7. Output

View Output

8. Conclusion

I used POST in the AJAX request but you can also use GET request.

Initialize jQuery UI autocomplete on an input element and use the source option to send AJAX request for displaying suggestions.

View this tutorial, to know jQuery UI autocomplete implementation in Laravel 8.

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