kl-angular-mentions

Angular Mentions

Simple Angular mentions inspired by Ment.io.

Click here for a Demo

Provides auto-complete suggestions for @mentions in text input fields, text areas, and content editable fields.

To install and start the demo application:

git clone https://github.com/dmacfarlane/angular-mentions.git
cd angular-mentions
npm install
ng serve

Usage

Add the package as a dependency to your project using:

npm install angular-mentions

Add the module to your app.module imports:

import { MentionModule } from 'angular-mentions';
...

@NgModule({
    imports: [ MentionModule ],
    ...
})

Add the [mention] directive to your input element:

<input type="text" [mention]="items">

Where items is a string array of the items to suggest. For example:

items: string[] = ["Noah", "Liam", "Mason", "Jacob", ...

Configuration Options

The following optional configuration items can be used.

Option	Default	Description
items		An array of strings or objects to suggest.
triggerChar	@	The character that will trigger the menu behavior.
labelKey	label	The field to be used as the item label (when the items are objects).
disableSort	false	Disable sorting of suggested items.
disableSearch	false	Disable internal filtering (only useful if async search is used).
dropUp	false	Show the menu above the cursor instead of below.
maxItems	∞	Limit the number of items shown in the text. The default is no limit.
insertHTML	false	Insert HTML instead of plain text.
mentionSelect		An optional function to format the selected item before inserting the text. Use this function to create HTML.
allowSpace	false	Allow spaces while mentioning.
returnTrigger	false	Include the trigger char in the searchTerm event.

For Example:

<input type="text" [mention]="items" [mentionConfig]="{triggerChar:'#',maxItems:10,labelKey:'name'}">

HTML Element Example:

<div
    [mention]="items"
    [mentionConfig]="{
        insertHTML: true,
        mentionSelect: insertSpanElement
    }"
    class="form-control"
    contenteditable="true"
    style="border:1px lightgrey solid;min-height:88px"></div>

/**
 * Note: There is no way to add a trailing space after this span.
 * There will be useability consequences.
 */
public insertSpanElement(name) {
    let el = document.createElement("span");
    el.contentEditable = "false";
    el.className = "mention";
    el.innerText = `@${name.label}`;
    return el;
}

HTML Code Example:

<div
    [mention]="items"
    [mentionConfig]="{
        insertHTML: true,
        mentionSelect: insertSpanText
    }"
    class="form-control"
    contenteditable="true"
    style="border:1px lightgrey solid;min-height:88px"></div>

/**
 * Note the trailig &nbsp;.
 * It helps with useability.
 */
public insertSpanText(name) {
    return `
    <span
        class="mention"
        contenteditable="false"
        >@${name.label}</span>&nbsp;
    `;
}

Output Events

The following output events can be used.

Output	Description
@Output() serchTerm EventEmitter<string>	Event that is emitted whenever the search term changes. Can be used to trigger async search.
@Output() opened EventEmitter<void>	Event that is emitted when the mentions panel is opened.
@Output() closed EventEmitter<void>	Event that is emitted when the mentions panel is closed.

Alternative Usage

The component can also be used by only specifying the mentionConfig object:

<input type="text" [mentionConfig]="mentionConfig">

With the following structure:

let mentionConfig = {
    items: [ "Noah", "Liam", "Mason", "Jacob", ... ],
    triggerChar: "@",
    ...
}

In this way, multiple config objects can be used:

let mentionConfig = {
    mentions: [
        {
            items: [ "Noah", "Liam", "Mason", "Jacob", ... ],
            triggerChar: '@'
        },
        {
            items: [ "Red", "Yellow", "Green", ... ],
            triggerChar: '#'
        },
    }]
}

This allows different lists and trigger characters to be configured.

Note that becuase objects are mutable, changes to the items within the config will not be picked up unless a new mentionConfig object is created.