how to select multiple entries from a auto complete box in cakephp?

Question

Hi, I have an auto complete box which is populated with the list of users of the application. It is working fine with the box listing the users.

But I am able to select only one user. How to select multiple users from the list ? And also how to save the selected user's names in a variable or an array?

EDIT

I am using the built-in auto complete feature of the CakePHP framework. This is the action in the controller which generates the auto complete text box.

function autoComplete()
{
  $this->set('users',$this->User->find('all',array(
                                  'fields'=>array('User.id','User.name'),
    'conditions'=>array('User.name LIKE' => $this->data['User']['name'].'%'))));

    $this->layout = "ajax";
}

This is the auto_complete.ctp file

<ul>
    <?php foreach($users as $user): ?>
         <li><?php echo $user['User']['name']; ?></li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

And this is the view where I have the auto complete box:

<?php echo $form->create('User', array('url' => '/forms/share')); ?>

     <?php  echo $ajax->autoComplete('User.name', '/forms/autoComplete');?>

 <?php echo $form->end('Share');?>

In the auto complete box, I am able to select only one user name. how can I select multiple users with a comma or space separator?

Answer 1

I don't think the AjaxHelper can produce a multi-selection auto-complete box, it's not what it's designed to do. I'm afraid you'll have to roll your own solution. Since you're already getting a nice list via Ajax that shouldn't be too much trouble.

If you want something like the Stack Overflow tag box you can probably get by by placing a few Javascript callbacks in the Helper, if you're looking for a checkbox based list you'll need to do your own.