A TypeAhead (autocomplete) widget for Flutter, where you can show suggestions to users as they type
- Shows suggestions in an overlay that floats on top of other widgets
- Allows you to specify what the suggestions will look like through a builder function
- Allows you to specify what happens when the user taps a suggestion
- Accepts all the parameters that traditional TextFields accept, like decoration, custom TextEditingController, text styling, etc.
- Provides two versions, a normal version and a FormField version that accepts validation, submitting, etc.
- Provides high customizability; you can customize the suggestion box decoration, the loading bar, the animation, the debounce duration, etc.
See the installation instructions on pub.
You can import the package with:
import 'package:flutter_typeahead/flutter_typeahead.dart';
and then use it as follows:
TypeAheadField(
textFieldConfiguration: TextFieldConfiguration(
autofocus: true,
style: DefaultTextStyle.of(context).style.copyWith(
fontStyle: FontStyle.italic
),
decoration: InputDecoration(
border: OutlineInputBorder()
)
),
suggestionsCallback: (pattern) async {
return await BackendService.getSuggestions(pattern);
},
itemBuilder: (context, suggestion) {
return ListTile(
leading: Icon(Icons.shopping_cart),
title: Text(suggestion['name']),
subtitle: Text('\$${suggestion['price']}'),
);
},
onSuggestionSelected: (suggestion) {
Navigator.of(context).push(MaterialPageRoute(
builder: (context) => ProductPage(product: suggestion)
));
},
)
In the code above, the textFieldConfiguration
property allows us to
configure the displayed TextField
as we want. In this example, we are
configuring the autofocus
, style
and decoration
properties.
The suggestionsCallback
is called with the search string that the user
types, and is expected to return a List
of data either synchronously or
asynchronously. In this example, we are calling an asynchronous function
called BackendService.getSuggestions
which fetches the list of
suggestions.
The itemBuilder
is called to build a widget for each suggestion.
In this example, we build a simple ListTile
that shows the name and the
price of the item. Please note that you shouldn't provide an onTap
callback here. The TypeAhead widget takes care of that.
The onSuggestionSelected
is a callback called when the user taps a
suggestion. In this example, when the user taps a
suggestion, we navigate to a page that shows us the information of the
tapped product.
Here's another example, where we use the TypeAheadFormField inside a Form
:
final GlobalKey<FormState> _formKey = GlobalKey<FormState>();
final TextEditingController _typeAheadController = TextEditingController();
String _selectedCity;
...
Form(
key: this._formKey,
child: Padding(
padding: EdgeInsets.all(32.0),
child: Column(
children: <Widget>[
Text(
'What is your favorite city?'
),
TypeAheadFormField(
textFieldConfiguration: TextFieldConfiguration(
controller: this._typeAheadController,
decoration: InputDecoration(
labelText: 'City'
)
),
suggestionsCallback: (pattern) {
return CitiesService.getSuggestions(pattern);
},
itemBuilder: (context, suggestion) {
return ListTile(
title: Text(suggestion),
);
},
transitionBuilder: (context, suggestionsBox, controller) {
return suggestionsBox;
},
onSuggestionSelected: (suggestion) {
this._typeAheadController.text = suggestion;
},
validator: (value) {
if (value.isEmpty) {
return 'Please select a city';
}
},
onSaved: (value) => this._selectedCity = value,
),
SizedBox(height: 10.0,),
RaisedButton(
child: Text('Submit'),
onPressed: () {
if (this._formKey.currentState.validate()) {
this._formKey.currentState.save();
Scaffold.of(context).showSnackBar(SnackBar(
content: Text('Your Favorite City is ${this._selectedCity}')
));
}
},
)
],
),
),
)
Here, we assign to the controller
property of the textFieldConfiguration
a TextEditingController
that we call _typeAheadController
.
We use this controller in the onSuggestionSelected
callback to set the
value of the TextField
to the selected suggestion.
The validator
callback can be used like any FormField.validator
function. In our example, it checks whether a value has been entered,
and displays an error message if not. The onSaved
callback is used to
save the value of the field to the _selectedCity
member variable.
The transitionBuilder
allows us to customize the animation of the
suggestion box. In this example, we are returning the suggestionsBox
immediately, meaning that we don't want any animation.
TypeAhead widgets consist of a TextField and a suggestion box that shows as the user types. Both are highly customizable
You can customize the text field using the textFieldConfiguration
property.
You provide this property with an instance of TextFieldConfiguration
,
which allows you to configure all the usual properties of TextField
, like
decoration
, style
, controller
, focusNode
, autofocus
, enabled
,
etc.
TypeAhead provides default configurations for the suggestions box. You can, however, override most of them.
You can use the loadingBuilder
, errorBuilder
and noItemsFoundBuilder
to
customize their corresponding widgets. For example, to show a custom error
widget:
errorBuilder: (BuildContext context, Object error) =>
Text(
'$error',
style: TextStyle(
color: Theme.of(context).errorColor
)
)
There are three scenarios when you can hide the suggestions box.
Set hideOnLoading
to true to hide the box while suggestions are being
retrieved. This will also ignore the loadingBuilder
. Set hideOnEmpty
to true to hide the box when there are no suggestions. This will also ignore
the noItemsFoundBuilder
. Set hideOnError
to true to hide the box when there
is an error retrieving suggestions. This will also ignore the errorBuilder
.
You can customize the suggestion box animation through 3 parameters: the
animationDuration
, the animationStart
, and the transitionBuilder
.
The animationDuration
specifies how long the animation should take, while the
animationStart
specified what point (between 0.0 and 1.0) the animation
should start from. The transitionBuilder
accepts the suggestionsBox
and
animationController
as parameters, and should return a widget that uses
the animationController
to animate the display of the suggestionsBox
.
For example:
transitionBuilder: (context, suggestionsBox, animationController) =>
FadeTransition(
child: suggestionsBox,
opacity: CurvedAnimation(
parent: animationController,
curve: Curves.fastOutSlowIn
),
)
This uses FadeTransition
to fade the suggestionsBox
into the view. Note how the
animationController
was provided as the parent of the animation.
In order to fully remove the animation, transitionBuilder
should simply
return the suggestionsBox
. This callback could also be used to wrap the
suggestionsBox
with any desired widgets, not necessarily for animation.
The suggestions box does not fire for each character the user types. Instead,
we wait until the user is idle for a duration of time, and then call the
suggestionsCallback
. The duration defaults to 300 milliseconds, but can be
configured using the debounceDuration
parameter.
By default, the suggestions box is displayed 5 pixels below the TextField
.
You can change this by changing the suggestionsBoxVerticalOffset
property.
You can also customize the decoration of the suggestions box using the
suggestionsBoxDecoration
property. For example, to remove the elevation
of the suggestions box, you can write:
suggestionsBoxDecoration: SuggestionsBoxDecoration(
elevation: 0.0
)
By default, the list grows towards the bottom. However, you can use the direction
property to customize the growth direction to be one of AxisDirection.down
or AxisDirection.up
, the latter of which will cause the list to grow up, where the first suggestion is at the bottom of the list, and the last suggestion is at the top.
Visit the API Documentation
AbdulRahman AlHamali | S McDowall | Kenneth Liang |
This project is the result of the collective effort of contributors who participated effectively by submitting pull requests, reporting issues, and answering questions. Thank you for your proactiveness, and we hope flutter_typeahead made your lifes at least a little easier!