[TYPO3-dev] Make selecting records via AJAX possible (like Google Suggest)

[Andreas Wolf]

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Hi list,

I guess you all know things like Google Suggest or the autocompleter
text fields of script.aculo.us. My idea is to integrate something these
into TCEforms, so it is easier to select records that are
wide-spread over the pagetree. I have implemented a first version that
works and has some features, but the code is still quite ugly
and it is not that well integrated into the core or even documented -
and it is done on 4.1, but porting it to 4.2-dev is no problem, the
patch applies seamlessly.

So, what am I talking about? As I said, the code is not yet ready to be
published, I also have to check it for errors and implement one or two
additional features.
But what I have is a screenshot [1], just to make you hungry for more ;)

To quicken your appetite, here is a short description of what I have
done until now:
 * selecting records from all tables that are allowed for the field
 * respects permissions and visibility-settings
 * implementation of individual functions for selecting and rendering
   records is possible
   (I have done a demo for a21glossary and for party. The select
   function for party selects the name from table tx_party_names, but
   the record is inserted from table tx_party_parties. The function for
   a21glossary displays the meaning of abbreviations and the long-form
   of acronyms below the title - instead of the path)
 * you may restrict selection to certain pages/folders and to a certain
   depth
 * configuration on a per-table base, i.e. you can configure e.g.
   different pids for different tables

This is on my schedule:
 * allowing per-field configuration, meaning you may use pid 1 for field
   A in table Y and pid 2 for field B in table Z
 * some more configuration options for the selector itself, e.g. placing
   the it right to the list box instead of below
 * perhaps a "static" selection, meaning the selected records don't
   disappear after adding one record to the list-box. But I don't know
   by now how to do this with script.aculo.us.

So, I really appreciate your feedback - do you think TYPO3 would be
better with this feature? What would you like to have implemented? And
to the core-devs: Do you think this might get into 4.2?
If I get positive response, I will try to get the code ready until the
weekend...

[1] http://www.andreaswolf.info/typo3/ajax_selector2.png

Cheers

Andreas
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