Search Bar with Suggestions using jQuery Autocomplete.js

The “Autocomplete” is a well designed, multi-features and cross-browser plugin for jQuery. It helps you to create jQuery powered search bar with suggestions. You just need to define an array of suggested words that you wanted to display as search hints. After that, the plugin will dynamically started to suggest words on input event.

Moreover, the plugin comes with multiple configuration options. You can fully customize it according to your needs.

Plugin Overview

Plugin: Autocomplete.js
Author: Lorenzo Cioni
Licence: MIT Licence
Published: January 17, 2024
Repository: Fork on GitHub
Dependencies: jQuery 1.3.1 or Latest version
File Type: zip archive (HTML, CSS & JavaScript )
Package Size: 76.5 KB

How to Make jQuery Search Bar with Suggestions

1. Load jQuery JavaScript library and Autocomplete plugin’s CSS and JS file into your HTML document.

<!-- jQuery -->
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.4.1.min.js"></script>

<!-- Autocomplete JS -->
<script src="js/autocomplete.js"></script>

<!-- Autocomplete CSS -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/autocomplete.min.css">

2. After loading all necessary assets, create a div element with a unique id for search bar as follows:

<div class="wrapper">
   <div id="search-form"></div>
</div>

3. Now, create an array of your suggestions words in jQuery document ready function and then initialize the plugin.

$(document).ready(function(){

var suggestions = ['Apple', 'Banana', 'Mango', 'Orange', 'Grips'];

   $('#search-form').autocomplete({
      hints: suggestions 
   });

});

Advance Configuration Options for Suggestions Search Bar

The following are some advance configuration options to create / customize “jQuery search bar with suggestions”.

Option Description, Default, Type
hints

Define the an array of words for suggestions / hints. Default: [], Type: Array.

$('#search-form').autocomplete({
   hints: ['Apple', 'Banana', 'Mango', 'Orange', 'Grips'],
});
placeholder

Define the placeholder text for search input. Default: “Search”, Type: String.

$('#search-form').autocomplete({
   placeholder: "Your custom placeholder text",
});
width & height

These are useful to define the CSS width and height property for search input. Default: width: 200, height: 16, Type: Number | String.

Tip: You can also define width & height in px, em or any valid CSS value. To do so, pass the value in string. Like: “140px”

$('#search-form').autocomplete({
   width: 300,
   height: 24,
});
showButton

Enable / disable search button. Default: true, Type: Boolean.

false to disable.

$('#search-form').autocomplete({
   showButton: true.
});
buttonText

It define the text on/for search button. Default: “Search”, Type: String.

$('#search-form').autocomplete({
   buttonText: "Custom Text",
});

Autocomplete JS Callback Functions

The following are two callback functions to execute on different search (input) events.

1. Function to trigger on search submit.

$('#search-form').autocomplete({
   onSubmit: function(){
     
	  //Code to execute
   
   },
});

3. Function to trigger on input blur.

$('#search-form').autocomplete({
   onBlur: function(){
     
	 //Code to execute
   
   },
});

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