INTRODUCTION
We need to implement autocomplete dropdown feature using Nintex form in SharePoint 2019 custom list for hospitality company based out Saudi Arabia. Client has already acquired Nintex forms license for customizing SharePoint forms and wanted to set autocomplete dropdown feature for department field in Nintex form.
PROBLEM
Nintex form does not provide OOTB autocomplete dropdown control which can be utilized to meet client requirement. So, we thought of an alternate approach by setting "Department" field as lookup column in SharePoint custom list and set that column as
dropdown in Nintex form, but the issue is lookup column also does not have auto suggest functionality.
SOLUTION
Nintex form provides an option to inject custom jQuery in Nintex forms. So, finally, we have decided to use custom jQuery Auto-complete combo box in Nintex form to
achieve autocomplete dropdown functionality.
In
the Nintex form, we need to set label control and inside that rendering the jQuery auto-complete combo box component programmatically. Also, we've implemented Ajax call to get list of
department values from SharePoint list and binds to jQuery combo box component. To store selected values from combo box to SharePoint list, we've used other single line of
text field in the Nintex form and set the selected values from the control to this field on save button click. We've hide the control using jQuery when form loads.
PROCESS
Step 1: Open Nintex Forms
Go to the list where you want to integrate this Nintex form, click on the list
and select Nintex Forms.
Here, we have SharePoint custom list having column named Department with single line of text type.
Step 2: Setup Default Department.
You can see the default form already setup here; and we need to hide the department column that was already set with single line of text. It can be implemented using custom jQuery.
To open setting of this control, Select and open control
setting from the top left side of the page.
It will open the control setting page, expand the formatting tab, Here, we need to add "formDepartmentField" class for both Control CSS class and CSS class.
Step 3: Setup Dropdown.
Now, We
need to set our dropdown control in the label field. And to do that, we need to first add a label control in the Nintex form from left side panel.
Double click on the label OR click on Control setting, will
open Control Settings - Label window.
Expand the Formatting tab, In CSS class, add “autoChoiceBox”
class for custom dropdown and
“nf-form-input nf-section” class to apply CSS. Click on Save button.
Step 4: Setup Submit button.
Open submit button control setting and expand the Advance tab.
Now, on Client click, we have to write code for validation and
store value from department field to SharePoint list. It can be achieved using custom jQuery.
Add
below code in the Client click field.
NWF$(document).ready(function () {
if (NWF$('.custom-combobox-input').val() == "") {
NWF$('.custom-combobox-input').addClass('nf-error-highlight');
} else {
NWF$('.custom-combobox-input').removeClass('nf-error-highlight');
}
NWF$(NWF$(".formDepartmentField").find('input')[0]).val($('.custom-combobox-input').val());
});
The code must be written only on submit button client click
event.
Step 5: Apply jQuery and Give code reference path.
Click on the form setting to apply CSS and custom jQuery code.
Expand
Advanced tab, in Custom JavaScript Include section, set reference URLs of JS files containing our custom code, Here, we have stored these files in a Style library.
For Autocomplete dropdown, we need to add one jQuery
plug-in called jQuery UI (1-12-1)
Reference URL for jQuery UI:- http://jqueryui.com/resources/download/jquery-ui-1.12.1.zip
We need to download it from the jQuery site and uploaded it to Style
library. The path of this file must be added prior to our custom JS file link added in "Custom JavaScript Includes section as shown above.
Add below code for autocomplete dropdown in the script file - INF_Autocomplete.js and Save the changes.
NWF$(document).ready(function () {
NWF$("#s4-ribbonrow").attr("style", "display:none !important;");
});
var userDep = "";
NWF.FormFiller.Events.RegisterAfterReady(function () {
var isNewMode = document.location.pathname.indexOf("/NewForm.aspx") >-1;
var isDisplayMode = document.location.pathname.indexOf("/DisplayForm.aspx") >-1;
NWF$('.nameOfUser').change(function () {
var userName = NWF$("[data-val]").attr("data-val");
if (userName) {
var userName2 = userName.slice(7);
var userName1 = userName2.replace("\\", "\\\\");
var valToSet = onUserNameChange(userName2);
setValToDropdown(valToSet);
NWF$('.custom-combobox-input').val(valToSet);
}
});
userDep = getUserDepartment();
var htmlForCombo = '<div class="ui-widget"><select id="combobox"><option value>Select one...</option></select></div>';
NWF$('.autoChoiceBox').html(htmlForCombo);
var allDep = getDepartmentData();
var departmentArray = [];
allDep.forEach(function (item, index) {
departmentArray.push(item.DepartmentName);
NWF$('#combobox').append(NWF$('<option>', {
value: item.DepartmentName,
text: item.DepartmentName
}));
});
if (isNewMode) {
setValToDropdown(userDep);
} else {
var valToSet1 = NWF$(NWF$(".formDepartmentField").find('input')[0]).val();
setValToDropdown(valToSet1);
}
if (isDisplayMode) {
setTimeout(function () {
NWF$('.ui-widget').attr("disabled", "disabled");
NWF$('a.ui-button').unbind('click').removeAttr('title');
}, 100);
}
NWF$(function () {
NWF$.widget("custom.combobox", {
_create: function () {
this.wrapper = NWF$("<span>").addClass("custom-combobox").insertAfter(this.element);
this.element.hide();
this._createAutocomplete();
this._createShowAllButton();
},
_createAutocomplete: function () {
var selected = this.element.children(":selected"),
value = selected.val() ? selected.text() : "";
this.input = NWF$("<input>").appendTo(this.wrapper).val(value).attr("title", "").addClass("custom-combobox-input ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-state-default ui-corner-left").autocomplete({
delay: 0,
minLength: 0,
source: NWF$.proxy(this, "_source")
}).tooltip({
classes: {
"ui-tooltip": "ui-state-highlight"
}
});
this._on(this.input, {
autocompleteselect: function (event, ui) {
ui.item.option.selected = true;
this._trigger("select", event, {
item: ui.item.option
});
},
autocompletechange: "_removeIfInvalid"
});
},
_createShowAllButton: function () {
var input = this.input,
wasOpen = false;
NWF$("<a>").attr("tabIndex", -1).attr("title", "Show All Items").tooltip().appendTo(this.wrapper).button({
icons: {
primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s"
},
text: false
}).removeClass("ui-corner-all").addClass("custom-combobox-toggle ui-corner-right").on("mousedown", function () {
wasOpen = input.autocomplete("widget").is(":visible");
}).on("click", function () {
input.trigger("focus"); /*Close if already visible*/
if (wasOpen) {
return;
} /*Pass empty string as value to search for, displaying all results*/
input.autocomplete("search", "");
});
},
_source: function (request, response) {
var matcher = new RegExp(NWF$.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(request.term), "i");
response(this.element.children("option").map(function () {
var text = NWF$(this).text();
if (this.value&& (!request.term || matcher.test(text))) return {
label: text,
value: text,
option: this
};
}));
},
_removeIfInvalid: function (event, ui) {
/*Selected an item, nothing to do*/
if (ui.item) {
return;
} /*Search for a match (case-insensitive)*/
var value = this.input.val(),
valueLowerCase = value.toLowerCase(),
valid = false;
this.element.children("option").each(function () {
if (NWF$(this).text().toLowerCase() === valueLowerCase) {
this.selected = valid = true;
return false;
}
}); /*Found a match, nothing to do*/
if (valid) {
return;
} /*Remove invalid value*/
this.input.val("");
this.element.val("");
this.input.autocomplete("instance").term = "";
},
_destroy: function () {
this.wrapper.remove();
this.element.show();
}
});
NWF$("#combobox").combobox();
});
NWF$('.formDepartmentField').hide();
});
function getUserDepartment() {
var dataToReturn = "";
var reqUrl = _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager/GetMyProperties";
$.ajax({
url: reqUrl,
type: "GET",
headers: {
"accept": "application/json;odata=verbose"
},
async: false,
success: function (data) {
if (data.d&&data.d.UserProfileProperties&&data.d.UserProfileProperties.results) {
dataToReturn = data.d.UserProfileProperties.results[11].Value;
}
}
});
return dataToReturn;
}
function getDepartmentData() {
var dataToReturnDep = [];
var reqUrl = _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('Lists%20Of%20Departments')/items?$select=DepartmentName&$top=1000";
$.ajax({
url: reqUrl,
type: "GET",
headers: {
"accept": "application/json;odata=verbose",
"content-type": "application/json;odata=verbose"
},
async: false,
success: function (data) {
if (data &&data.d&&data.d.results) {
dataToReturnDep = data.d.results
}
}
});
return dataToReturnDep;
}
function onUserNameChange(dataFun) {
var dataToReturn = "";
var reqUrl = _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager/GetPropertiesFor(accountName=@v)?@v='" + dataFun + "'";
$.ajax({
url: reqUrl,
type: "GET",
headers: {
"accept": "application/json;odata=verbose"
},
async: false,
success: function (data) {
if (data.d&&data.d.UserProfileProperties&&data.d.UserProfileProperties.results) {
dataToReturn = data.d.UserProfileProperties.results[11].Value;
}
}
});
return dataToReturn;
};
function setValToDropdown(valueToSet) {
NWF$('#combobox').val(valueToSet);
NWF$('#combobox').change();
};
Step 6: Apply CSS.
On form setting, expand the Custom CSS tab.
You can add below code for designing the dropdown as per business need.
.nf-form-input {
border: 1px solid #d4dbe0;
}
.nf-form-label .nf-filler-control-inner{
top: 1px; bottom: 1px; line-height: 1.2;
}
.custom - combobox - input {
width: 90 %
}
.custom - combobox {
padding: 10 px;
}.custom - combobox {
height: 34 px; margin: 10 px; padding: 0 px; display: block; border: 1 px solid #ababab;
}.custom - combobox> input {
height: 29 px; background: #ffffff; border: 0 px; margin - top: 2 px!important; width: 93 % ;
}
Conclusion
This is how Autocomplete dropdown cab be setup in Nintex Form.
