<AutocompleteArrayInput>

To let users choose multiple values in a list using a dropdown with autocompletion, use <AutocompleteArrayInput>. It renders using Material UI Autocomplete.

This input allows editing values that are arrays of scalar values, e.g. [123, 456].

Tip: React-admin includes other components allowing the edition of such values:

• <SelectArrayInput> renders a dropdown list of choices
• <CheckboxGroupInput> renders a list of checkbox options
• <DualListInput> renders a list of choices that can be moved from one list to another

Tip: <AutocompleteArrayInput> is a stateless component, so it only allows to filter the list of choices, not to extend it. If you need to populate the list of choices based on the result from a fetch call (and if <ReferenceArrayInput> doesn’t cover your need), you’ll have to write your own Input component based on Material UI <Autocomplete> component.

Usage

In addition to the source, <AutocompleteArrayInput> requires one prop: the choices listing the possible values.

import { AutocompleteArrayInput } from 'react-admin';

<AutocompleteArrayInput source="roles" choices={[
    { id: 'admin', name: 'Admin' },
    { id: 'u001', name: 'Editor' },
    { id: 'u002', name: 'Moderator' },
    { id: 'u003', name: 'Reviewer' },
]} />

By default, the possible choices are built from the choices prop, using:

• the id field as the option value,
• the name field as the option text

The form value for the source must be an array of the selected values, e.g.

{
    id: 123,
    name: 'John Doe',
    roles: ['u001', 'u003'],
}

Props

<AutocompleteArrayInput> also accepts the common input props.

choices

The list of choices must be an array of objects - one object for each possible choice. In each object, id is the value, and the name is the label displayed to the user.

<AutocompleteArrayInput source="roles" choices={[
    { id: 'admin', name: 'Admin' },
    { id: 'u001', name: 'Editor' },
    { id: 'u002', name: 'Moderator' },
    { id: 'u003', name: 'Reviewer' },
]} />

You can also use an array of objects with different properties for the label and value, given you specify the optionText and optionValue props:

<AutocompleteArrayInput source="roles" choices={[
    { _id: 'admin', label: 'Admin' },
    { _id: 'u001', label: 'Editor' },
    { _id: 'u002', label: 'Moderator' },
    { _id: 'u003', label: 'Reviewer' },
]} optionValue="_id" optionText="label" />

The choices are translated by default, so you can use translation identifiers as choices:

const choices = [
    { id: 'admin', name: 'myroot.roles.admin' },
    { id: 'u001', name: 'myroot.roles.u001' },
    { id: 'u002', name: 'myroot.roles.u002' },
    { id: 'u003', name: 'myroot.roles.u003' },
];

You can opt-out of this translation by setting the translateChoice prop to false.

If you need to fetch the options from another resource, you’re actually editing a one-to-many or a many-to-many relationship. In this case, wrap the <AutocompleteArrayInput> in a <ReferenceArrayInput> or a <ReferenceManyToManyInput> component. You don’t need to specify the choices prop - the parent component injects it based on the possible values of the related resource.

<ReferenceArrayInput source="tag_ids" reference="tags">
    <AutocompleteArrayInput />
</ReferenceArrayInput>

You can also pass an array of strings for the choices:

const roles = ['Admin', 'Editor', 'Moderator', 'Reviewer'];  
<AutocompleteArrayInput source="roles" choices={roles} />
// is equivalent to
const choices = roles.map(value => ({ id: value, name: value }));
<AutocompleteArrayInput source="roles" choices={choices} />

create

To allow users to add new options, pass a React element as the create prop. <AutocompleteArrayInput> will then render a “Create” option at the bottom of the choices list. When clicked, it will render the Create element.

import { CreateRole } from './CreateRole';

const choices = [
    { id: 'admin', name: 'Admin' },
    { id: 'u001', name: 'Editor' },
    { id: 'u002', name: 'Moderator' },
    { id: 'u003', name: 'Reviewer' },
];

const UserCreate = () => (
    <Create>
        <SimpleForm>
            <AutocompleteArrayInput
                source="roles"
                choices={choices}
                create={<CreateRole />}
            />
        </SimpleForm>
    </Create>
);

// in ./CreateRole.js
import { useCreateSuggestionContext } from 'react-admin';
import {
    Button,
    Dialog,
    DialogActions,
    DialogContent,
    TextField,
} from '@mui/material';

const CreateRole = () => {
    const { filter, onCancel, onCreate } = useCreateSuggestionContext();
    const [value, setValue] = React.useState(filter || '');

    const handleSubmit = event => {
        event.preventDefault();
        const newOption = { id: value, name: value };
        choices.push(newOption);
        setValue('');
        onCreate(newOption);
    };

    return (
        <Dialog open onClose={onCancel}>
            <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
                <DialogContent>
                    <TextField
                        label="Role name"
                        value={value}
                        onChange={event => setValue(event.target.value)}
                        autoFocus
                    />
                </DialogContent>
                <DialogActions>
                    <Button type="submit">Save</Button>
                    <Button onClick={onCancel}>Cancel</Button>
                </DialogActions>
            </form>
        </Dialog>
    );
};

If you just need to ask users for a single string to create the new option, you can use the onCreate prop instead.

If you’re in a <ReferenceArrayInput> or <ReferenceManyToManyInput>, the handleSubmit will need to create a new record in the related resource. Check the Creating New Choices for an example.

createLabel

When you set the create or onCreate prop, <AutocompleteArrayInput> lets users create new options. You can use the createLabel prop to render an additional (disabled) menu item at the bottom of the list, that will only appear when the input is empty, inviting users to start typing to create a new option.

<AutocompleteArrayInput
    source="roles"
    choices={choices}
    create={<CreateRole />}
    createLabel="Start typing to create a new item"
/>

createItemLabel

If you set the create or onCreate prop, <AutocompleteArrayInput> lets users create new options. When the text entered by the user doesn’t match any option, the input renders a “Create XXX” menu item at the bottom of the list.

You can customize the label of that menu item by setting a custom translation for the ra.action.create_item key in the translation files.

Or, if you want to customize it just for this <AutocompleteArrayInput>, use the createItemLabel prop:

<AutocompleteArrayInput
    source="roles"
    choices={choices}
    create={<CreateRole />}
    createItemLabel="Add a new role: %{item}"
/>

debounce

When used inside a <ReferenceArrayInput>, <AutocompleteArrayInput> will call dataProvider.getList() with the current input value as filter after a delay of 250ms. This is to avoid calling the API too often while users are typing their query.

This delay can be customized by setting the debounce prop.

<ReferenceArrayInput source="tag_ids" reference="tags">
    <AutocompleteArrayInput debounce={500} />
</ReferenceArrayInput>

emptyValue

If the input isn’t required (using validate={required()}), users can select an empty choice. The default value for that empty choice is the empty string (''), or null if the input is inside a <ReferenceArrayInput>.

You can override this value with the emptyValue prop.

<AutocompleteArrayInput source="roles" choices={choices} emptyValue={0} />

Tip: While you can set emptyValue to a non-string value (e.g. 0), you cannot use null or undefined, as it would turn the <AutocompleteArrayInput> into an uncontrolled component. If you need the empty choice to be stored as null or undefined, use the parse prop to convert the default empty value ('') to null or undefined, or use the sanitizeEmptyValues prop on the Form component.

filterToQuery

When used inside a <ReferenceArrayInput>, whenever users type a string in the autocomplete input, <AutocompleteArrayInput> calls dataProvider.getList() using the string as filter, to return a filtered list of possible options from the reference resource. This filter is built using the filterToQuery prop.

By default, the filter is built using the q parameter. This means that if the user types the string ‘lorem’, the filter will be { q: 'lorem' }.

You can customize the filter by setting the filterToQuery prop. It should be a function that returns a filter object.

const filterToQuery = searchText => ({ name_ilike: `%${searchText}%` });

<ReferenceArrayInput source="tag_ids" reference="tags">
    <AutocompleteArrayInput filterToQuery={filterToQuery} />
</ReferenceArrayInput>

onChange

Use the onChange prop to get notified when the input value changes.

Its value must be a function, defined as follows:

type OnChange = (
        value: any[], // the new value
        record: RaRecord[] // the selected records
    ) => void;

In the following example, the onChange prop is used to update the language field whenever the user selects a new author:

import * as React from 'react';
import { useFormContext } from 'react-hook-form';

import {
    ArrayInput,
    AutocompleteArrayInput,
    AutocompleteArrayInputProps,
    Create,
    ReferenceArrayInput,
    SimpleForm,
    SimpleFormIterator,
    TextInput,
} from 'react-admin';

const LanguageChangingAuthorInput = () => {
    const { setValue } = useFormContext();
    const handleChange: AutocompleteArrayInputProps['onChange'] = (
        value,
        records
    ) => {
        // handleChange will be called with, for instance:
        //   value: [2],
        //   record: [{ id: 2, name: 'Victor Hugo', language: 'French' }]
        setValue(
            'language',
            records?.map(record => record.language)
        );
    };
    return (
        <ReferenceArrayInput reference="authors" source="author">
            <AutocompleteArrayInput
                optionText="name"
                onChange={handleChange}
                label="Authors"
            />
        </ReferenceArrayInput>
    );
};

const BookEdit = () => (
    <Create
        mutationOptions={{
            onSuccess: data => {
                console.log(data);
            },
        }}
        redirect={false}
    >
        <SimpleForm>
            <LanguageChangingAuthorInput />
            <ArrayInput source="language" label="Languages">
                <SimpleFormIterator>
                    <TextInput source="." label="Language" />
                </SimpleFormIterator>
            </ArrayInput>
        </SimpleForm>
    </Create>
);

onCreate

Use the onCreate prop to allow users to create new options on-the-fly. Its value must be a function. This lets you render a prompt to ask users about the new value. You can return either the new choice directly or a Promise resolving to the new choice.

import { AutocompleteArrayInput, Create, SimpleForm, TextInput } from 'react-admin';

const PostCreate = () => {
    const categories = [
        { name: 'Tech', id: 'tech' },
        { name: 'Lifestyle', id: 'lifestyle' },
    ];
    return (
        <Create>
            <SimpleForm>
                <TextInput source="title" />
                <AutocompleteArrayInput
                    onCreate={() => {
                        const newCategoryName = prompt('Enter a new category');
                        const newCategory = { id: newCategoryName.toLowerCase(), name: newCategoryName };
                        categories.push(newCategory);
                        return newCategory;
                    }}
                    source="category_ids"
                    choices={categories}
                />
            </SimpleForm>
        </Create>
    );
}

If a prompt is not enough, you can use the create prop to render a custom component instead.

optionText

By default, <AutocompleteArrayInput> uses the name property as the text content of each option.

import { AutocompleteArrayInput } from 'react-admin';

<AutocompleteArrayInput
    source="categories"
    choices={[
        { id: 'tech', name: 'Tech' },
        { id: 'lifestyle', name: 'Lifestyle' },
        { id: 'people', name: 'People' },
    ]}
/>
// renders the following list of choices
// - Tech
// - Lifestyle
// - People

If your choices don’t have a name property, or if you want to use another property, you can use the optionText prop to specify which property to use:

<AutocompleteArrayInput
    source="categories"
    optionText="label"
    choices={[
        { id: 'tech', label: 'Tech' },
        { id: 'lifestyle', label: 'Lifestyle' },
        { id: 'people', label: 'People' },
    ]}
/>

optionText also accepts a function, so you can shape the option text at will:

const choices = [
   { id: 123, first_name: 'Leo', last_name: 'Tolstoi' },
   { id: 456, first_name: 'Jane', last_name: 'Austen' },
];

// Note we declared the function outside the component to avoid rerenders
const optionRenderer = choice => `${choice.first_name} ${choice.last_name}`;

<AutocompleteArrayInput source="authors" choices={choices} optionText={optionRenderer} />

Tip: Make sure you provide a stable reference to the function passed as optionText. Either declare it outside the component render function or wrap it inside a useCallback.

optionText also accepts a React Element, that will be rendered inside a <RecordContext> using the related choice as the record prop. You can use Field components there. However, using an element as optionText implies that you also set two more props, inputText and matchSuggestion. See Using A Custom Element For Options for more details.

optionText is also useful when the choices are records fetched from another resource, and <AutocompleteArrayInput> is a child of a <ReferenceArrayInput>.

import { AutocompleteArrayInput, ReferenceArrayInput } from 'react-admin';

<ReferenceArrayInput label="Author" source="authors_ids" reference="authors">
    <AutocompleteArrayInput />
</ReferenceArrayInput>

In that case, react-admin uses the recordRepresentation of the related resource to display the record label. In the example above, <AutocompleteArrayInput> uses the resource representation of the authors resource, which is the name property.

But if you set the optionText prop, react-admin uses it instead of relying on recordRepresentation.

import { AutocompleteArrayInput, ReferenceArrayInput } from 'react-admin';

<ReferenceArrayInput label="Author" source="authors_ids" reference="authors">
    <AutocompleteArrayInput optionText="last_name" />
</ReferenceArrayInput>

optionValue

You can customize the properties to use for the option value (instead of the default id) thanks to the optionValue prop:

const choices = [
    { _id: 'admin', name: 'Admin' },
    { _id: 'u001', name: 'Editor' },
    { _id: 'u002', name: 'Moderator' },
    { _id: 'u003', name: 'Reviewer' },
];
<AutocompleteArrayInput source="roles" choices={choices} optionValue="_id" />

shouldRenderSuggestions

When dealing with a large amount of choices you may need to limit the number of suggestions that are rendered in order to maintain acceptable performance. shouldRenderSuggestions is an optional prop that allows you to set conditions on when to render suggestions. An easy way to improve performance would be to skip rendering until the user has entered 2 or 3 characters in the search box. This lowers the result set significantly and might be all you need (depending on your data set).

<AutocompleteArrayInput 
    source="roles"
    choices={choices}
    shouldRenderSuggestions={(val) => { return val.trim().length > 2 }}
/>

suggestionLimit

The choices prop can be very large, and rendering all of them would be very slow. To limit the number of suggestions displayed at any time, set the suggestionLimit prop:

<AutocompleteArrayInput
    source="roles"
    choices={choices}
    suggestionLimit={10}
/>

If you’re using <AutocompleteArrayInput> inside a <ReferenceArrayInput>, limit the number of choices returned by the API instead, using the perPage prop of the <ReferenceArrayInput>.

<ReferenceArrayInput source="category_ids" reference="categories" perPage={10}>
    <AutocompleteArrayInput />
</ReferenceArrayInput>

sx: CSS API

The <AutocompleteArrayInput> component accepts the usual className prop. You can also override many styles of the inner components thanks to the sx property (see the sx documentation for syntax and examples).

<AutocompleteArrayInput> renders an <AutocompleteInput> and reuses its styles. To override the style of all instances of <AutocompleteInput> using the application-wide style overrides, use the RaAutocompleteInput key.

Refer to the Material UI <Autocomplete> component to know its CSS API.

translateChoice

The choices are translated by default, so you can use translation identifiers as choices:

const choices = [
    { id: 'admin', name: 'myroot.roles.admin' },
    { id: 'u001', name: 'myroot.roles.u001' },
    { id: 'u002', name: 'myroot.roles.u002' },
    { id: 'u003', name: 'myroot.roles.u003' },
];

However, in some cases (e.g. inside a <ReferenceArrayInput>), you may not want the choice to be translated. In that case, set the translateChoice prop to false.

<AutocompleteArrayInput source="roles" choices={choices} translateChoice={false}/>

Additional Props

<AutocompleteArrayInput> renders a Material UI <Autocomplete> component and accepts the <Autocomplete> props:

<AutocompleteArrayInput source="category" limitTags={2} />

Tip: Like many other inputs, <AutocompleteArrayInput> accept a fullWidth prop.

Tip: To use the disableCloseOnSelect prop, you must also set blurOnSelect={false}, since this is enabled by default.

Fetching Choices

If you want to populate the choices attribute with a list of related records, you should decorate <AutocompleteArrayInput> with <ReferenceArrayInput>, and leave the choices empty:

import { AutocompleteArrayInput, ReferenceArrayInput } from 'react-admin';

<ReferenceArrayInput label="Tags" reference="tags" source="tags">
    <AutocompleteArrayInput />
</ReferenceArrayInput>

Check the <ReferenceArrayInput> documentation for more details.

Working With Object Values

When working with a field that contains an array of objects, use parse and format to turn the value into an array of scalar values.

So for instance, for editing the tags field of records looking like the following:

{
  "id": 123,
  "tags": [
      { "id": "lifestyle" },
      { "id": "photography" }
   ] 
}

You should use the following syntax:

import { AutocompleteArrayInput } from 'react-admin';

<AutocompleteArrayInput 
    source="tags"
    parse={value =>
        value && value.map(v => ({ id: v }))
    }
    format={value => value && value.map(v => v.id)}
    choices={[
        { id: 'programming', name: 'Programming' },
        { id: 'lifestyle', name: 'Lifestyle' },
        { id: 'photography', name: 'Photography' },
    ]}
/>

Using A Custom Element For Options

You can pass a custom element as optionText to have <AutocompleteArrayInput> render each suggestion in a custom way.

<AutocompleteArrayInput> will render the custom option element inside a <RecordContext>, using the related choice as the record prop. You can use Field components there.

However, as the underlying Material UI <Autocomplete> component requires that the current selection is a string, you must also pass a function as the inputText prop. This function should return a text representation of the current selection. You should also pass a matchSuggestion function to filter the choices based on the current selection.

const choices = [
   { id: 123, first_name: 'Leo', last_name: 'Tolstoi', avatar:'/penguin' },
   { id: 456, first_name: 'Jane', last_name: 'Austen', avatar:'/panda' },
];
const OptionRenderer = () => {
    const record = useRecordContext();
    return (
        <span>
            <img src={record.avatar} />
            {record.first_name} {record.last_name}
        </span>
    );
};
const optionText = <OptionRenderer />;
const inputText = choice => `${choice.first_name} ${choice.last_name}`;
const matchSuggestion = (filter, choice) => {
    return (
        choice.first_name.toLowerCase().includes(filter.toLowerCase())
        || choice.last_name.toLowerCase().includes(filter.toLowerCase())
    );
};

<AutocompleteArrayInput
    source="author_ids"
    choices={choices}
    optionText={optionText}
    inputText={inputText}
    matchSuggestion={matchSuggestion}
/>

Tip: Make sure you pass stable references to the functions passed to the inputText and matchSuggestion by either declaring them outside the component render function or by wrapping them in a useCallback.

Tip: Make sure you pass a stable reference to the element passed to the optionText prop by calling it outside the component render function like so:

const OptionRenderer = () => {
    const record = useRecordContext();
    return (
        <span>
            <img src={record.avatar} />
            {record.first_name} {record.last_name}
        </span>
    );
};

const optionText = <OptionRenderer />;

Creating New Choices

The <AutocompleteArrayInput> can allow users to create a new choice if either the create or onCreate prop is provided.

Use the onCreate prop when you only require users to provide a simple string and a prompt is enough. You can return either the new choice directly or a Promise resolving to the new choice.

import { AutocompleteArrayInput, Create, SimpleForm, TextInput } from 'react-admin';

const PostCreate = () => {
    const tags = [
        { name: 'Tech', id: 'tech' },
        { name: 'Lifestyle', id: 'lifestyle' },
    ];
    return (
        <Create>
            <SimpleForm>
                <TextInput source="title" />
                <AutocompleteArrayInput
                    onCreate={() => {
                        const newTagName = prompt('Enter a new tag');
                        const newTag = { id: newTagName.toLowerCase(), name: newTagName };
                        tags.push(newTag);
                        return newTag;
                    }}
                    source="tags"
                    choices={tags}
                />
            </SimpleForm>
        </Create>
    );
}

Use the create prop when you want a more polished or complex UI. For example a Material UI <Dialog> asking for multiple fields because the choices are from a referenced resource.

import {
    AutocompleteArrayInput,
    Create,
    ReferenceArrayInput,
    SimpleForm,
    TextInput,
    useCreate,
    useCreateSuggestionContext
} from 'react-admin';

import {
    Box,
    BoxProps,
    Button,
    Dialog,
    DialogActions,
    DialogContent,
    TextField,
} from '@mui/material';

const PostCreate = () => {
    return (
        <Create>
            <SimpleForm>
                <TextInput source="title" />
                <ReferenceArrayInput source="tags" reference="tags">
                    <AutocompleteArrayInput create={<CreateTag />} />
                </ReferenceArrayInput>
            </SimpleForm>
        </Create>
    );
}

const CreateTag = () => {
    const { filter, onCancel, onCreate } = useCreateSuggestionContext();
    const [value, setValue] = React.useState(filter || '');
    const [create] = useCreate();

    const handleSubmit = event => {
        event.preventDefault();
        create(
            'tags',
            {
                data: {
                    title: value,
                },                
            },
            {
                onSuccess: (data) => {
                    setValue('');
                    onCreate(data);
                },
            }
        );
    };

    return (
        <Dialog open onClose={onCancel}>
            <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
                <DialogContent>
                    <TextField
                        label="New tag"
                        value={value}
                        onChange={event => setValue(event.target.value)}
                        autoFocus
                    />
                </DialogContent>
                <DialogActions>
                    <Button type="submit">Save</Button>
                    <Button onClick={onCancel}>Cancel</Button>
                </DialogActions>
            </form>
        </Dialog>
    );
};