Render results

Once the autocomplete component binds to input via inputSelector and dropdownSelector, it then renders autocomplete provided in a render function. It is called on input focus and change events, and renders a dropdown element with the current search result state:

• if input is empty and history entries exist, it renders dropdown with history list,

• if input is not empty and it passes minQueryLength rule, it render dropdown with keywords and products.

Render can be adjusted to the desired framework. Moreover, the library provides helpers for Mustache/Liquid template languages.

Examples

Suppose index.html is

<form id="search-form">
    <input type="text" id="search" placeholder="search" />
    <button type="submit" id="search-button">Search</button>
    <div id="search-results" className="ns-autocomplete"></div>
</form>

List of autocomplete initialization examples:

1. Liquid Example below uses fromLiquidTemplate helper which renders string template. Library provides default autocomplete template via defaultLiquidTemplate and default css for default template:

import {
    autocomplete,
    search,
    fromLiquidTemplate,
    defaultLiquidTemplate,
} from "@nosto/autocomplete/liquid"
import "@nosto/autocomplete/styles.css"

autocomplete({
    fetch: {
        products: {
            fields: ["name", "url", "imageUrl", "price", "listPrice", "brand"],
            size: 5,
        },
        keywords: {
            size: 5,
            fields: ["keyword", "_highlight.keyword"],
            highlight: {
                preTag: `<strong>`,
                postTag: "</strong>",
            },
        },
    },
    inputSelector: "#search",
    dropdownSelector: "#search-results",
    render: fromLiquidTemplate(defaultLiquidTemplate),
    submit: async (query, config, options) => {
        if (query.length >= config.minQueryLength) {
            const response = await search(
                {
                    query,
                },
                {
                    redirect: true,
                    track: config.nostoAnalytics ? "serp" : undefined,
                    ...options
                }
            )
            // Do something with response. For example, update Search Engine Results Page products state.
        }
    },
})

The template also can be loaded from a file. The library includes a default template, equivalent to string template in above example:

import {
    autocomplete,
    search,
    fromRemoteLiquidTemplate,
} from "@nosto/autocomplete/liquid"
import "@nosto/autocomplete/styles.css"

autocomplete({
    // ...
    render: fromRemoteLiquidTemplate(
        `./node_modules/@nosto/autocomplete/dist/liquid/autocomplete.liquid`
    ),
})

2. Mustache Mustache template is rendered similarly as Liquid template in the above example:

import {
    autocomplete,
    search,
    fromMustacheTemplate,
    defaultMustacheTemplate,
} from "@nosto/autocomplete/mustache"
import "@nosto/autocomplete/styles.css"

autocomplete({
    // ...
    render: fromMustacheTemplate(defaultMustacheTemplate),
})

Or from a file:

import {
    autocomplete,
    search,
    fromRemoteMustacheTemplate,
} from "@nosto/autocomplete/mustache"
import "@nosto/autocomplete/styles.css"

autocomplete({
    // ...
    render: fromRemoteMustacheTemplate(
        `./node_modules/@nosto/autocomplete/dist/mustache/autocomplete.mustache`
    ),
})

3. React/Preact One way to initialize autocomplete in a React app, is to call autocomplete from the useEffect on component mount, using default <Autocomplete /> component and styles:

import { useEffect } from "react"
import { createRoot } from "react-dom/client"
import {
    autocomplete,
    search,
    Autocomplete,
} from "@nosto/autocomplete/react"
import "@nosto/autocomplete/styles"

let reactRoot = null

export function Search() {
    useEffect(() => {
        autocomplete({
            fetch: {
                products: {
                    fields: [
                        "name",
                        "url",
                        "imageUrl",
                        "price",
                        "listPrice",
                        "brand",
                    ],
                    size: 5,
                },
                keywords: {
                    size: 5,
                    fields: ["keyword", "_highlight.keyword"],
                    highlight: {
                        preTag: `<strong>`,
                        postTag: "</strong>",
                    },
                },
            },
            inputSelector: "#search",
            dropdownSelector: "#search-results",
            render: function (container, state) {
                if (!reactRoot) {
                    reactRoot = createRoot(container)
                }

                reactRoot.render(<Autocomplete {...state} />)
            },
            submit: async (query, config, options) => {
                if (query.length >= config.minQueryLength) {
                    const response = await search(
                        {
                            query,
                        },
                        {
                            redirect: true,
                            track: config.nostoAnalytics ? "serp" : undefined,
                            ...options
                        }
                    )
                    // Do something with response. For example, update Search Engine Results Page products state.
                }
            },
        })
    }, [])

    return (
        <form id="search-form">
            <input type="text" id="search" placeholder="search" />
            <button type="submit" id="search-button">
                Search
            </button>
            <div id="search-results" className="ns-autocomplete"></div>
        </form>
    )
}

The Preact solution does not differ from React a lot:

import { render } from "preact/compat"
import { useEffect } from "preact/hooks"
import {
    Autocomplete,
    autocomplete,
    search,
} from "@nosto/autocomplete/preact"
import "@nosto/autocomplete/styles.css"

export function Search() {
    useEffect(() => {
        autocomplete({
            // ...
            render: function (container, state) {
                render(<Autocomplete {...state} />, container)
            },
        })
    }, [])

    return <form id="search-form">{/* ... */}</form>
}