Choices: Is it possible to use serverside searching?

[martijnvbeek]

Can Choices be configured to use serverside searching (type-a-head)? eg. Fetch 5 results from server when 3 characters or more are entered in the search field?

[fernandoagarcia]

You need a searchable index. Its cheaper to pull all available choices in one call rather than making a call after every segment of letters.

[martijnvbeek]

I'm using an elasticsearch index for the obvious reasons. Can it be done?

[fernandoagarcia]

Yeah you can use the instance.ajax() method from the api.

[martijnvbeek]

As far as I can determine it's not possible to query the server when the user has typed 3 characters or more are show the results from the server in Choices. The instance.ajax() method is only called when the component is initialised.

[fernandoagarcia]

There is no method that directly covers your use case. Your solution will require a combination of custom code mixed with the methods provided by the choices api. To query the server seems like a custom solution Tied in the the instance.search() listener. Then once you get a response you initialized/reinitialize the options or the choices instance. But the main reason why there are no samples is because this is specific to your case. Choices requires a searchable index but if you dont have one until an action is taken then it maybe a difficult approach. Would agree that it would be great for the api to work with elastic search right out of the box.

[jshjohnson]

Just seconding what @fernandoagarcia said. Choices is a client-side library so any server logic will need to handled yourself. You could make a debounced request within the search event.

[martijnvbeek]

Thanks, with your directions I've constructed a solution: Example