NOTE: Apart from
(and even then it's questionable, I'm Scottish). These are machine translated in languages I don't read. If they're terrible please contact me.
You can see how this translation was done in this article.
Monday, 16 September 2024
//5 minute read
In a previous post I showed you how to create a search dropdown using Alpine.js and HTMX then I showed how we could enable Cross-Site Request Forgery protection using the AntiforgeryRequestToken in ASP.NET Core with JavaScript using HTMX to implement a Donut Hole cache. One outstanding issue was how it loaded pages.
The issue was I was using HTMX AJAX to do the requested page loading once you had selected the result from the drop down page. This only KINDA worked.
selectResult(result) {
htmx.ajax('get', result.url, {
target: '#contentcontainer', // The container to update
swap: 'innerHTML', // Replace the content inside the target
}).then(function() {
history.pushState(null, '', result.url);
window.scrollTo({
top: 0,
behavior: 'smooth'
});
});
The issue was that while this would load the right page and update the shown URL with the new one, it messed up the back button. As the page WASN'T REALLY loaded into the history properly.
As with my last article on back button shennanigans this was something I wanted to fix.
As with previously the solution was to let HTMX handle this directly. To do this I updated my template I use for search results.
_typeahead.cshtml<div x-data="window.mostlylucid.typeahead()" class="relative" id="searchelement" x-on:click.outside="results = []">
@Html.AntiForgeryToken()
<label class="input input-sm bg-neutral-500 bg-opacity-10 input-bordered flex items-center gap-2">
<input
type="text"
x-model="query"
x-on:input.debounce.200ms="search"
x-on:keydown.down.prevent="moveDown"
x-on:keydown.up.prevent="moveUp"
x-on:keydown.enter.prevent="selectHighlighted"
placeholder="Search..."
class="border-0 grow input-sm text-black dark:text-white bg-transparent w-full"/>
<i class="bx bx-search"></i>
</label>
<!-- Dropdown -->
<ul x-show="results.length > 0"
id="searchresults"
class="absolute z-100 my-2 w-full bg-white dark:bg-custom-dark-bg border border-1 text-black dark:text-white border-neutral-600 rounded-lg shadow-lg">
<template x-for="(result, index) in results" :key="result.slug">
<li :class="{
'dark:bg-blue-dark bg-blue-light': index === highlightedIndex,
'dark:hover:bg-blue-dark hover:bg-blue-light': true
}"
class="cursor-pointer text-sm p-2 m-2">
<!-- These are the key changes.-->
<a
x-on:click="selectResult(index)"
@* :href="result.url" *@
:hx-get="result.url"
hx-target="#contentcontainer"
hx-swap="innerHTML"
hx-push-url="true"
x-text="result.title"
>
</a>
<-- End of changes -->
</li>
</template>
</ul>
</div>
You'll see that I now generate proper HTMX links in this code block. Letting us use the correct HTMX behaviour.
typeahead.jsTo enable this in my backend JavaScript code I added the following to my search method (shown below). The this.$nextTick is an Alpine.js construct that delays this until Alpine has finished processing the template I showed above.
I then use htmx.process() on the search element which will ensure the HTMX attributes work as expected.
.then(data => {
this.results = data;
this.highlightedIndex = -1; // Reset index on new search
this.$nextTick(() => {
htmx.process(document.getElementById('searchresults'));
});
})
search() {
if (this.query.length < 2) {
this.results = [];
this.highlightedIndex = -1;
return;
}
let token = document.querySelector('#searchelement input[name="__RequestVerificationToken"]').value;
console.log(token);
fetch(`/api/search/${encodeURIComponent(this.query)}`, { // Fixed the backtick and closing bracket
method: 'GET', // or 'POST' depending on your needs
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'X-CSRF-TOKEN': token // Attach the AntiForgery token in the headers
}
})
.then(response => {
if(response.ok){
return response.json();
}
return Promise.reject(response);
})
.then(data => {
this.results = data;
this.highlightedIndex = -1; // Reset index on new search
this.$nextTick(() => {
htmx.process(document.getElementById('searchresults'));
});
})
.catch((response) => {
console.log(response.status, response.statusText);
if(response.status === 400)
{
console.log('Bad request, reloading page to try to fix it.');
window.location.reload();
}
response.json().then((json) => {
console.log(json);
})
console.log("Error fetching search results");
});
}
Later on once a page is selected I handle the code to select the page, click on the link an clear the results (to close the search box).
selectHighlighted() {
if (this.highlightedIndex >= 0 && this.highlightedIndex < this.results.length) {
this.selectResult(this.highlightedIndex);
}
},
selectResult(selectedIndex) {
let links = document.querySelectorAll('#searchresults a');
links[selectedIndex].click();
this.$nextTick(() => {
this.results = []; // Clear the results
this.highlightedIndex = -1; // Reset the highlighted index
this.query = ''; // Clear the query
});
}
This is selected through the onclick of the link in the search results.
<a
x-on:click="selectResult(index)"
:hx-get="result.url"
hx-target="#contentcontainer"
hx-swap="innerHTML"
hx-push-url="true"
x-text="result.title"
>
</a>
Which will then load the page and update the URL correctly.
I also have code in the parent box whick allows you to use the arrow keys and enter.
<label class="input input-sm bg-neutral-500 bg-opacity-10 input-bordered flex items-center gap-2">
<input
type="text"
x-model="query"
x-on:input.debounce.200ms="search"
x-on:keydown.down.prevent="moveDown"
x-on:keydown.up.prevent="moveUp"
x-on:keydown.enter.prevent="selectHighlighted"
placeholder="Search..."
class="border-0 grow input-sm text-black dark:text-white bg-transparent w-full"/>
<i class="bx bx-search"></i>
</label>
You'll see that this has all the code necessary to enable you to just hit enter and navigate to the selected page.
Just a quick update article to the existing search dropdown to enhance the user experience when using search. Again this is a MINIMAL user facing change but just enhances the user experience; who as a web developer are your primary concern (beyond getting paid :)).