Autocomplete (type-ahead search) component

[Sam Bull]

It would be good to have a standardised autocomplete text field component. While this could help ensure a similar look and feel, the most important aspect is perhaps ensuring a good matching algorithm is used across all apps, such as using a fuzzy matching algorithm and ensuring the most likely matches are sorted to the top.

When the user starts typing, it should show suggested matches from a list of possible matches, and allow the user to click on a match to fill the text field with that value.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Examples:
http://sambull.org/screenshot.png
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TimeAndDate#Time_zone

[Sam Bull (dreamsorcerer)]

Having thought about this a little more, I think the component should perhaps be less interested in the visual style. For example, it could provide a text field, or be attached to a text field, and then just provide a ListModel that can be used in a ListView or Repeater.

This allows flexibility for it to be used under different circumstances. For example:
  The Bitcoin app shown in the first screenshot embeds the autocomplete into a custom component, and just shows the top 3 matching results.

  Whereas the Esperanto dictionary app simply displays all matching results in a ListView with progression tabs.