Allow set custom event on suggestion click

[SneakyGerald]

At the moment when we click the suggestions the behavior is to set suggestion text as the input value. However, if we want to run our own or additional events we are not able because of preventDefault():

      div.addEventListener('click', function (ev: MouseEvent): void {
        clear();
        selected = item;
        input.value = display(item, ev);
        ev.preventDefault(); // --> this
      });

I think it would be useful to allow users to add additional logic on typeahead events and not limit it.

[niketpathak]

Hello @SneakyGerald ,

The display() callback receives the MouseEvent | KeyboardEvent | null and thereby allows you to do whatever you'd like by checking for the existence of the event.

Another user wanted something similar and here's a link that'll help you add additional logic as per your needs - #24 (comment).
So you could easily use the display callback to add your additional logic.

[SneakyGerald]

Thanks @niketpathak ! This will work for me, however, if the user wants to add href to the suggestion item it will get stopped by preventDefault() anyway. We can make a workaround using js in display() callback as well but seems too complex compared to simple <a> tag solution.

[niketpathak]

@SneakyGerald yes, you are right. However that will not give a consistent behavior while selecting a suggestion via the mouse and via the keyboard.
To elaborate: if we remove preventDefault(), a mouse click on a suggestion containing a link will cause the user to navigate to the link. But if the user selects the same suggestion with his keyboard and hits on Enter or Tab, he/she will not have the same behaviour. Instead, it will execute the display() callback thereby only update the input's value.

To ensure consistent behavior on selecting a suggestion, we decided to leave preventDefault() in place.
Thanks again!

[niketpathak]

Hello @SneakyGerald, after reconsideration, you were finally right. The choice to call preventDefault has been left upto the user as of v4.21.0. Thanks for your input.