XulPlanet.com - Textbox (Firefox Auto Complete) Reference

Textbox (Firefox Auto Complete)

This element is created by setting the type attribute of a textbox to 'autocomplete'. It is used to create a textbox with a popup containing a list of possible completions for what the user has started to type.

Firefox uses a different autocomplete mechanism that the Mozilla suite. The example below will create an autocomplete textbox which will search the user's history.

Example:

    <textbox type="autocomplete" autocompletesearch="history"/>

The textbox (Firefox Auto Complete) element implements the following interfaces:

nsIAccessibleProvider nsIAutoCompleteInput nsIDOMXULMenuListElement

Attributes:

accesskey

Type: character

This should be set to a letter that is used as a shortcut key. This letter should be one of the characters that appears in the label text for the textbox. This letter will typically be drawn underlined, although this behavior will be platform and theme specific. When the user presses ALT (or a similar key that varies on each platform) and the access key, the textbox will be activated from anywhere in the window. Although the value is case insensitive, a letter with the case matching the accesskey attribute will used if both cases exist in the label.

autocompletepopup

Type: id of popup element

The id of a popup element used to hold autocomplete results for the textbox.

autocompletesearch

Type: space separated list of values

A space separated list of search component names, each of which implements the nsIAutoCompleteSearch interface. The components are created using the name '@mozilla.org/autocomplete/search;1?name=' where name is listed in this attribute.

history: Search the browser's URL history
form-history: Search the values that the user has entered into form fields.

autocompletesearchparam

Type: string

A string which is passed to the search component. If using the form-history search type, this specifies a results key. Any textbox using the same key will share autocomplete results, whereas if only one textbox uses a key, it will have a unique set of results. In the textentered event, you can use the addEntry method of the nsIFormHistory interface to save entered values into the form history storage.

completedefaultindex

Type: boolean

If true, the best match value will be filled into the textbox as the user types. If set to false or omitted, the value must be selected from the list.

crop

Type: one of the values below

If the label of the textbox is too small to fit in its given space, the text will be cropped on the side specified by the crop attribute. An ellipsis will be used in place of the cropped text. If the box direction is reversed, the cropping is reversed.

start: The text will be cropped on its left side.
end: The text will be cropped on its right side.
left: (Deprecated) The text will be cropped on its left side.
right: (Deprecated) The text will be cropped on its right side.
center: The text will be cropped on both sides.
none: The text will be not be cropped using an ellipsis. However, the text will simply be cut off if it is too large. The side depends on the CSS text alignment.

disableautocomplete

Type: boolean

Set this attribute to true to disable autocomplete on the textbox. This might be used to temporarily disable autocomplete for a field.

disabled

Type: boolean

Indicates whether the textbox is disabled or not. If this attribute is set to true, the textbox is disabled. This is usually drawn with the text in grey. If the textbox is disabled, it does not respond to user actions. The element cannot be focused and the command event will not fire. The element will still respond to mouse events. To enable the textbox, leave the attribute out entirely as opposed to setting the value to false.

disablekeynavigation

Type: boolean

If this attribute is not used, the user can navigate to specific items in the list by pressing the first the first letter of the item's label. This is done incrementally, so pressing additional keys will select more specific items. This feature may be disabled by setting this attribute to true.

enablehistory

Type: boolean

If true, an arrow button will appear on the end of the textbox which, when pressed, will open a dropdown menu of all available results.

focused

Type: boolean

This attribute is set to true if the textbox element is focused.

forcecomplete

Type: boolean

If true, the textbox will be filled in with the best match when it loses the focus. If false, it will only be filled in when the user selects an item.

ignoreblurwhilesearching

Type: boolean

If true, blur events are ignored while searching, which means that the autocomplete popup will not disappear.

inputtooltiptext

Type: string

The tooltip text for the textbox.

label

Type: string

The label that will appear on the textbox. If this is left out, no text appears.

maxlength

Type: integer

The maximum number of characters that the textbox allows to be entered.

maxrows

Type: integer

The number of rows to show in the results list at a time. A scrollbar will appear so the user can scroll through the remaining items.

minresultsforpopup

Type: integer

The minimum number of results that must be returned for the popup to be displayed.

nomatch

Type: boolean

This attribute will be set to true if the last search resulted in no matches.

onchange

Type: script code

This event is sent when the value of the textbox is changed. The event is not sent until the focus is moved to another element.

oninput

Type: script code

This event is sent when a user enters text in a textbox. This event is only called when the text displayed would change, thus it is not called when the user presses non-displayable keys.

onsearchcomplete

This event handler is called when the auto complete search is finished and results are available.

ontextentered

This event handler is called when a result is selected for the textbox.

ontextreverted

This event handler is called when the user presses Escape to revert the textbox to its original uncompleted value.

open

Type: boolean

This attribute will be set when the history popup is open. The open attribute is not present if the menu is closed.

readonly

Type: boolean

If set to true, then the user cannot modify the value of the textbox. However, the value may still be modified by a script.

showcommentcolumn

Type: boolean

If true, a comment column appears in the popup. For the URL history, the comment column will contain the page titles associated with each URL. The default value of this property is false.

size

Type: integer

The number of characters that can be displayed in the textbox.

tabindex

Type: integer

The tab order of the element. The tab order is the order in which the focus is moved when the user presses the Tab key. Elements with a higher tabindex are later in the tab order sequence.

tabscrolling

Type: boolean

If true, the user may cycle through the results list by pressing the TAB key. If false, the default, the TAB key moves the focus to the next element.

timeout

Type: integer

For timed textboxes, the number of milliseconds before the timer fires a command event. The timer starts after the user types a character. If the user types another character, the timer resets.

type

Type: string

Set to the value 'autocomplete' to have an autocomplete textbox.

value

Type: string

A value associated with the textbox. You may use it in a script for your own purposes.

Properties and Methods:

Inherited from XUL Element:

align
allowEvents
blur
boxObject
boxObject.element
boxObject.getLookAndFeelMetric
boxObject.height
boxObject.screenX
boxObject.screenY
boxObject.width
boxObject.x
boxObject.y
builder
className
click
collapsed
contextMenu
controllers
database
datasources
dir
doCommand
flex
focus
getElementsByAttribute
height
hidden
id
left
maxHeight
maxWidth
menu
minHeight
minWidth
observes
ordinal
orient
pack
persist
ref
resource
statusText
style
tooltip
tooltipText
top
width

Inherited from Element:

addEventListener
appendChild
attributes
childNodes
cloneNode
dispatchEvent
firstChild
getAttribute
getAttributeNS
getAttributeNode
getAttributeNodeNS
getElementsByTagName
getElementsByTagNameNS
hasAttribute
hasAttributeNS
hasAttributes
hasChildNodes
insertBefore
isSupported
lastChild
localName
namespaceURI
nextSibling
nodeName
nodeType
nodeValue
normalize
ownerDocument
parentNode
prefix
previousSibling
removeAttribute
removeAttributeNS
removeAttributeNode
removeChild
removeEventListener
replaceChild
setAttribute
setAttributeNS
setAttributeNode
setAttributeNodeNS
tagName

accessible

Type: nsIAccessible

Returns the accessibility object for the textbox.

completeDefaultIndex

Gets and sets the value of the completedefaultindex attribute.

controller

Type: nsIAutoCompleteController

Returns the controller for the auto complete element.

crop

Type: string

Gets and sets the value of the crop attribute.

disableAutoComplete

Gets and sets the value of the disableautocomplete attribute.

disableKeyNavigation

Gets and sets the value of the disablekeynavigation attribute.

disabled

Type: boolean

Gets and sets the value of the disabled attribute.

editable

Type: boolean

Autocomplete fields are editable so this property always returns true.

focused

Type: boolean

Gets and sets the value of the focused attribute.

forceComplete

Gets and sets the value of the forcecomplete attribute.

getSearchAt ( idx )

Return Type: string

Returns the search component with the given index. The components are set with the autocompletesearch attribute.

ignoreBlurWhileSearching

Gets and sets the value of the ignoreblurwhilesearching attribute.

inputField

Type: textbox element

In Mozilla, the XUL textbox is implemented as a wrapper around an HTML input element. This read only property holds a reference to this inner input element.

label

Type: string

Gets and sets the value of the label attribute.

maxLength

Type: integer

The maximum number of characters that the textbox allows to be entered.

maxRows

Gets and sets the value of the maxrows attribute.

minResultsForPopup

Gets and sets the value of the minresultsforpopup attribute.

onSearchComplete ( )

Return Type: no return value

Calls the searchcomplete event handler. You should not call this method yourself.

onTextEntered ( )

Return Type: event result

Calls the textentered event handler. You should not call this method yourself.

onTextReverted ( )

Return Type: event result

Calls the textreverted event handler. You should not call this method yourself.

open

Gets and sets the value of the open attribute.

popup

Type: popup element id

Should be set to the value of the id of the popup element that should appear when the user clicks on the textbox.

popupOpen

Type: boolean

Indicates whether the popup is open or not. Set this property to open or close the popup.

searchCount

Type: integer

Returns the number of search components used. This property is read only.

searchParam

Type: string

Gets and sets the value of the autocompletesearchparam attribute.

select ( )

Return Type: no return value

Select all the text in the textbox.

selectionEnd

Type: integer

Get or modify the end of the selected portion of the field's text. Use in conjuction with the selectionEnd property. The value specifies the index of the character after the selection. If this value is equal to the selectionStart property, no text is selected, but the value indicates the position of the caret (cursor) within the textbox.

selectionStart

Type: integer

Get or modify the beginning of the selected portion of the field's text. Use in conjuction with the selectionEnd property. The value specifies the index of the first selected character.

setSelectionRange ( start , end )

Return Type: no return value

Sets the selected portion of the textbox, where the start argument is the index of the first character to select and the end argument is the index of the character after the selection. Set both arguments to the same value to move the cursor to the corresponding position without selecting text.

showCommentColumn

Gets and sets the value of the showcommentcolumn attribute.

size

Type: integer

The number of characters that can be displayed in the textbox.

tabIndex Mozilla 1.8

Type: integer

Get and sets the value of the tabindex attribute.