New MooTools Plugin: ElementFilter

My new MooTools plugin, ElementFilter, provides a great way for you to allow users to search through the text of any mix of elements. Simply provide a text input box and ElementFilter does the rest of the work.

The XHTML

<ul id="my-list">
	<li>ADDRESS</li>
	<li>APPLET</li>
	<li>AREA</li>
	<li>A</li>
	<li>BASE</li>
	<li>BASEFONT</li>
	<li>BIG</li>
	<li>BLOCKQUOTE</li>
	<li>BODY</li>
	<li>BR</li>
	<!-- more -->
</ul>

I've used a list for this example but you can use any type or mix of elements that you'd like.

The MooTools JavaScript

var ElementFilter = new Class({

	//implements
	Implements: [Options,Events],

	//options
	options: {
		cache: true,
        caseSensitive: false,
        ignoreKeys: [13, 27, 32, 37, 38, 39, 40],
        matchAnywhere: true,
        property: 'text',
        trigger: 'mouseup',
        onStart: $empty,
        onShow: $empty,
        onHide: $empty,
        onComplete: $empty
	},

	//initialization
	initialize: function(observeElement,elements,options) {
		//set options
        this.setOptions(options);
        //set elements and element
        this.observeElement = document.id(observeElement);
        this.elements = $$(elements);
        this.matches = this.elements;
		this.misses = [];
        //start the listener
        this.listen();
	},
	
	//adds a listener to the element (if there's a value and if the event code shouldn't be ignored)
	listen: function() {
		//add the requested event
        this.observeElement.addEvent(this.options.trigger,function(e) {
			//if there's a value in the box...
			if(this.observeElement.value.length) {
				//if the key should not be ignored...
				if(!this.options.ignoreKeys.contains(e.code)) {
					this.fireEvent('start');
					this.findMatches(this.options.cache ? this.matches : this.elements);
					this.fireEvent('complete');
				}
			}
			else{
				//show all of the elements
				this.findMatches(this.elements,false);
			}
        }.bind(this));
	},

	//check for matches within specified elements
	findMatches: function(elements,matchOverride) {
		//settings
        var value = this.observeElement.value;
        var regExpPattern = this.options.matchAnywhere ? value : '^' + value;
        var regExpAttrs = this.options.caseSensitive ? '' : 'i';
		var filter = new RegExp(regExpPattern, regExpAttrs);
		var matches = [];				
        //recurse
        elements.each(function(el){
          	var match = (matchOverride == undefined ? filter.test(el.get(this.options.property)) : matchOverride);
			//if this element matches, store it...
			if(match) { 
				if(!el.retrieve('showing')){
					this.fireEvent('show',[el]);
				}
				matches.push(el); 
				el.store('showing',true);
			}
			else {
				if(el.retrieve('showing')) {
					this.fireEvent('hide',[el]);
				}
				el.store('showing',false);
			}
			return true;
        }.bind(this));
		return matches;
	}
});

The above options are pretty self explanatory so I'll skip the formalities. As you can see, all you need to do is provide the text element to listen to, the elements to search, and your option values.

The MooTools Sample Usage

/* usage */
window.addEvent('domready',function() {
  var myFilter = new ElementFilter('search-term', '#my-list li', {
    trigger: 'keyup',
	cache: true,
    onShow: function(element) {
		element.set('morph',{
			onComplete: function() {
				element.setStyle('background-color','#fff');
			}
		});
		element.morph({'padding-left':30,'background-color':'#a5faa9'});
    },
    onHide: function(element) {
		element.set('morph',{
			onComplete: function() {
				element.setStyle('background-color','#fff');
			}
		});
		element.morph({'padding-left':0,'background-color':'#fac3a5'});
    }
  });
});

This is a sample usage of this plugin. When a match is found, the element's background turns green and fades back to white. When an element no longer matches, I do the same effect but with red.

This plugin provides a great way to search for specific text within elements on a page. I recommend using a list (UL or OL) as they are very easily searchable.

A special thanks to Jeremy Parrish for his help in developing this plugin!