Fast Autocomplete

The Fast Autocomplete module provides fast IMDB-like suggestions below a text input field. Suggestions are stored as json files in the public files folder so that they can be provided to the browser relatively fast without the need for Drupal to be bootstrapped.

When the JSON file with the suggestions for the entered combination of characters does not exist, Drupal kicks in and suggestions are retrieved and returned by Drupal (and stored in a json file in the public files folder for future use). The JSON files are periodically deleted after a configurable expiration period (defaults to 1 day).

The suggestions are retrieved using a search service/plugin. The search services/plugin provided by the module can be altered through hooks or extended in custom implementations of the service class (Drupal 7) or added by implementing a custom plugin (Drupal 8/9).

Basic search services/plugins provided by the module are:

• Basic title search (D7/D8/D9): performs a LIKE query on node titles in the node table
• Core search (D7): uses the core search to get suggestions
• Search API (D7/D8/D9) queries Search API indexes
• Apachesolr (D7): queries Apachesolr indexes

The output of the suggestions can be configured using view modes. Combined with for instance the Display Suite module you can create really nice formatted suggestions.

Dependencies

The Drupal 8 version of the Fast Autocomplete module does not have any dependencies.

The following contrib modules are required to install the Fast Autocomplete Drupal 7 module:

• Entity API
• Libraries API
• X Autoload

Installation

See README.txt in the module codebase for installation instructions and more information about the module.

Examples

You can see this module in action when you use the search box on:

• the website of ABAB
• the Natuurwijzer website of Naturalis
• The 24kitchen.nl website
• The Huisarts & Wetenschap website of NHG
• the website of the Municipality of Venlo
• the website of Restauratiefonds