Unable to select item in Select2 drop down

Question

I am working on an app that uses Select2 (version 3.5.1). The HTML to setup this drop down / autocomplete field looks like this:

<input id="mySelect" class="form-control" type="hidden">

The form-control class in this snippet comes from Bootstrap. I am initializing this field from JavaScript using the following:

function getItemFormat(item) {
  var format = '<div>' + item.ItemName + '</div>';
  return format;
}

$(function() {
  $('#mySelect').select2({
    minimumInputLength: 5,
    placeholder: 'Search for an item',
    allowClear: true,
    ajax: {
      url: '/api/getItems',
      dataType: 'json',
      quietMillis: 250,
      data: function (term, page) {
        return {
          query: term
        };
      },
      results: function (data, page) {
        return { results: data, id: 'ItemId', text: 'ItemText' };
      }
    },
    formatResult: getItemFormat,
    dropdownCssClass: "bigdrop",
    escapeMarkup: function (m) { return m; }
  });
});

When my select field loads, it successfully renders. Once I type at least the fifth character, it successfully pulls items from the server and lists them as options. However, if I try to select one of them, nothing happens. The drop-down popup stays open. Nothing gets put in the actual field. There are no errors in the JavaScript console. Its like I didn't click anything.

In addition, I noticed that nothing is highlighted when I put my mouse over an item or attempt to navigate the list of options with the arrow keys.

What am I doing wrong?

Ecosphere

You seem to be missing a quote on the mySelect section. Is that in your source? try adding it in and see if it helps – Albedo

That's a problem with the snippet (I fixed it). However, that did not fix the issue. – Ecosphere

@Ecosphere can you provide us a live example using JSFiddle ? – Farrah

Answer 1

What is happening:

By default, results of the object you are returning in ajax.results should be an array in this structure [{id:1,text:"a"},{id:2,text:"b"}, ...].

  results: function (data, page) {
    var array = data.results; //depends on your JSON
    return { results: array };
  }

In Select2.js it actually states:

* @param options.results a function(remoteData, pageNumber, query) that converts data returned form the remote request to the format expected by Select2.
*      The expected format is an object containing the following keys:
*      results array of objects that will be used as choices
*      more (optional) boolean indicating whether there are more results available
*      Example: {results:[{id:1, text:'Red'},{id:2, text:'Blue'}], more:true}

Reading the source code, we can see that ajax.results is called on AJAX success:

   success: function (data) {
                        // TODO - replace query.page with query so users have access to term, page, etc.
                        // added query as third paramter to keep backwards compatibility
                        var results = options.results(data, query.page, query);
                        query.callback(results);
                    }

So ajax.results is really just a function for you to format your data into the appropriate structure ( e.g. [{id:a,text:"a"},{id:b,text:"b"}, ...]) before the data is passed to query.callback:

 callback: this.bind(function (data) {

                    // ignore a response if the select2 has been closed before it was received
                    if (!self.opened()) return;


                    self.opts.populateResults.call(this, results, data.results, {term: term, page: page, context:context});
                    self.postprocessResults(data, false, false);

                    if (data.more===true) {
                        more.detach().appendTo(results).html(self.opts.escapeMarkup(evaluate(self.opts.formatLoadMore, self.opts.element, page+1)));
                        window.setTimeout(function() { self.loadMoreIfNeeded(); }, 10);
                    } else {
                        more.remove();
                    }
                    self.positionDropdown();
                    self.resultsPage = page;
                    self.context = data.context;
                    this.opts.element.trigger({ type: "select2-loaded", items: data });
                })});

And what query.callback eventually does is to set the logic up properly so that everything works fine when you choose one of the items and trigger .selectChoice.

selectChoice: function (choice) {

            var selected = this.container.find(".select2-search-choice-focus");
            if (selected.length && choice && choice[0] == selected[0]) {

            } else {
                if (selected.length) {
                    this.opts.element.trigger("choice-deselected", selected);
                }
                selected.removeClass("select2-search-choice-focus");
                if (choice && choice.length) {
                    this.close();
                    choice.addClass("select2-search-choice-focus");
                    this.opts.element.trigger("choice-selected", choice);
                }
            }
        } 

So if there is some misconfiguration (e.g. results is not in the correct structure) that causes the class .select2-search-choice-focus not to be added to the DOM element before .selectChoice is called, this is what happens:

The drop-down popup stays open. Nothing gets put in the actual field. There are no errors in the JavaScript console. Its like I didn't click anything.

---

Solutions

There are many solutions to this. One of them is, of course, do some array keys manipulation in ajax.results.

  results: function (data, page) {
  //data = { results:[{ItemId:1,ItemText:"a"},{ItemId:2,ItemText:"b"}] };
    var array = data.results;
    var i = 0;
    while(i < array.length){
        array[i]["id"] = array[i]['ItemId'];
        array[i]["text"] = array[i]['ItemText'];
        delete array[i]["ItemId"];
        delete array[i]["ItemText"];
    i++;
    }
    return { results: array };
  }

But you may ask: why must the id be "id" and the text be "text" in the array?

[{id:1,text:"a"},{id:2,text:"b"}] 

Can the array be in this structure instead?

[{ItemId:1,ItemText:"a"},{ItemId:2,ItemText:"b"}]

The answer is yes. You just need to overwrite the id and text functions with your own functions.

Here are the original functions for .selecte2 in Select2.js:

    id: function (e) { return e == undefined ? null : e.id; },
    text: function (e) {
      if (e && this.data && this.data.text) {
        if ($.isFunction(this.data.text)) {
          return this.data.text(e);
        } else {
          return e[this.data.text];
        }
      } else {
        return e.text;
      }
    },

To overwrite them, just add your own functions inside the object you are passing to .selecte2:

$('#mySelect').select2({
id: function (item) { return item.ItemId },
text: function (item) { return item.ItemText }
......
});

---

Updates

What else is happening :

However, the text of the selected item does not appear in the field after the list closes.

This means .selectChoice has been successfully executed. Now the problem lies in .updateSelection. In the source code:

   updateSelection: function (data) {

        var container=this.selection.find(".select2-chosen"), formatted, cssClass;

        this.selection.data("select2-data", data);

        container.empty();
        if (data !== null) {
            formatted=this.opts.formatSelection(data, container, this.opts.escapeMarkup);
        }
        if (formatted !== undefined) {
            container.append(formatted);
        }
        cssClass=this.opts.formatSelectionCssClass(data, container);
        if (cssClass !== undefined) {
            container.addClass(cssClass);
        }

        this.selection.removeClass("select2-default");

        if (this.opts.allowClear && this.getPlaceholder() !== undefined) {
            this.container.addClass("select2-allowclear");
        }
    }

From here we can see that, before the corresponding string of text is placed into the input, it would call formatSelection.

formatSelection: function (data, container, escapeMarkup) {
            return data ? escapeMarkup(this.text(data)) : undefined;
        },

Update: Solution

Previously I thought this.text(data) can be overwritten by having text: funcion(item){ ... } in the parameters, but sadly it doesn't work that way.

Therefore to render the text properly in the field, you should overwrite formatSelection by doing

$('#mySelect').select2({
id: function (item) { return item.ItemId },
formatSelection: function (item) { return item.ItemText }
//......
});

instead of trying to overwrite text (which should supposedly have the same effect but this way of overwriting is not yet supported/implemented in the library)

$('#mySelect').select2({
id: function (item) { return item.ItemId },
text: function (item) { return item.ItemText }  //this will not work.
//......
});

Kairouan

This approach at least closes the drop down list. However, the text of the selected item does not appear in the field after the list closes. Why not? – Ecosphere

@Ecosphere this is because of formatSelection function you have to provide, like I said in my answer below. I had the same issue reporducing the error – Furst

@Ecosphere I have updated my answer regarding that. Simply put it instead of having text: function (item) { return item.ItemText } we just need to change the text into formatSelection` like this: formatSelection: function (item) { return item.ItemText } and it would work. – Catherine

@Ecosphere If there is still some problem after this, it would be great if you can let me know how the JSON the ajax call to /api/getItems looks like. You can get the JSON by doing console.log(data) in ajax.results. Actually, whether it would work properly depends highly on the structure of the JSON. – Catherine

sorry to tell, but this answer actually killed my desire to ever use select2^^ i mean the answer may be correct, but the work to put into a simple display of an array is absolutely not worth the pain ;-) – Birkenhead

Yes, this was a long answer but Archy demonstrates how to walk through this plugin and figure out what's going on with the code (a practice I know I need to do more often). I almost didn't read it but ultimately I am glad I did as it did help me find my problem but more so UNDERSTAND why my code wasn't working. A++ – Gradin

great answer, worth the bounty! – Abc

Answer 2

The issue you are facing is that select2 wants all your results to have an id property. If they don't you need to initialise with an id function which returns the id from each result.

It will not allow you to select a result unless you satisfy one of these. So in the case of your example :

function getItemFormat(item) {
  var format = '<div>' + item.ItemName + '</div>';
  return format;
}

$(function() {
  $('#mySelect').select2({
    minimumInputLength: 5,
    placeholder: 'Search for an item',
    allowClear: true,
    id: function(item) { return item.ItemId; },    /* <-- ADDED FUNCTION */
    ajax: {
      url: '/api/getItems',
      dataType: 'json',
      quietMillis: 250,
      data: function (term, page) {
        return {
          query: term
        };
      },
      results: function (data, page) {
        return { results: data, id: 'ItemId', text: 'ItemText' };
      }
    },
    formatResult: getItemFormat,
    dropdownCssClass: "bigdrop",
    escapeMarkup: function (m) { return m; }
  });
});

Pantisocracy

after 5 years but your answer is just a life saver to me. Thanks in advance! – Adenaadenauer

Answer 3

You need to provide an ID that returns from your API like @itsmejodie said. The other problem is that you have to provide select2 formatResult and formatSelection functions, once you have it loaded from Ajax but you can't put html on that. e.g.:

function format (item) { 
  return item.name; 
}

$(function() {
    $('#mySelect').select2({
      minimumInputLength: 2,
      placeholder: 'Search for an item',
      allowClear: true,
      ajax: {
        url: '/api/getItems',
        dataType: 'jsonp',
        quietMillis: 250,
        data: function (term, page) {
          return {
            query: term
          };
        },
        results: function (data, page) {
          return { results: data };
        }
      },
      formatResult: format,
      formatSelection: format
    });
});

Furst

Answer 4

For version 4 of Select2 use

processResults: function (data) { 

instead of

results: function (data) {

Prognostication