Tag Input Component for Angular

This is a component for Angular >= 2. Design and API are blandly inspired by Angular Material's md-chips.

This component is supposed to work with the latest Angular versions. If you have an issues, please do make sure you're not running a different version (or check this repo's package.json). Otherwise, please do open a new issue.

Demo

Check out the live demo (with source code) here http://www.buompris.co/ng2-tag-input/.

** The demo will soon be populated with more examples **

Install

npm install ng2-tag-input --save

Notice: the latest version on NPM may not reflect the branch master. Send me an email or open an issue and tag me if you need it to be published.

Configuration

Ensure you import the module:

import { TagInputModule } from 'ng2-tag-input';

@NgModule({
   imports: [ TagInputModule ]
})
export class MyModule {}

Configuration for SystemJS users

Many users have reported issues with SystemJS. I got it working with the following additions to the SystemJS configuration:

// packages object
{
    'ng2-tag-input': {
        main: 'dist/ng2-tag-input.bundle.js',
        format: 'cjs',
    },
    'ng2-material-dropdown': {
        defaultExtension: 'js',
        main: 'dist/ng2-dropdown.bundle.js',
        format: 'cjs',
    },
    'ng2-tag-input/modules/components/tag-input.template.html': {
        defaultJSExtension: false
    }
    // rest of the configuration
};

API for TagInputComponent

Inputs

Model (required)

• ngModel - [string[] | TagModel[]] - Model of the component. Accepts an array of strings as input OR an array of objects.

If you do use an array of objects, make sure you:

• define two properties, value and display. Value will uniquely identify the items, display will be the value displayed.
• or, in alternative, provide the keys using the inputs identifyBy and displayBy

Notice: the items provided to the model won't change, but the items added to the model will have the format { display, value }. If you do provide identifyBy and displayBy, these will be used as format for the user-entered tags.

Properties (optional)

placeholder - [?string]

String that sets the placeholder of the input for entering new terms.

secondaryPlaceholder - [?string]

String that sets the placeholder of the input for entering new terms when there are 0 items entered.

maxItems - [?number]

Sets the maximum number of items it is possible to enter.

readonly - [?boolean]

Sets the tag input static, not allowing deletion/addition of the items entered.

separatorKeys - [?number[]]

Array of keyboard keys with which is possible to define the key for separating terms. By default, only Enter is the defined key.

transform - [?(item: string) => string]

A function that takes as argument the value of an item, and returns a string with the new value when appended. If the method returns null/undefined/false, the item gets rejected.

inputId - [?string]

Custom ID assigned to the input

inputClass - [?string]

Custom class assigned to the input

clearOnBlur - [?boolean]

If set to true, it will clear the form's text on blur events

hideForm - [?number]

If set to true, will remove the form from the component

onTextChangeDebounce - [?number]

Number of ms for debouncing the onTextChange event (defaults to 250)

addOnBlur - [?boolean]

If set to true, will add an item when the form is blurred (defaults to false)

addOnPaste - [?boolean]

If set to true, will add items pasted into the form's input (defaults to false)

pasteSplitPattern - [?string]

Pattern used with the native method split() to separate patterns in the string pasted (defaults to ,)

blinkIfDupe - [?boolean]

If a duplicate item gets added, this will blink - giving the user a visual cue of where it is located (defaults to true)

removable - [?boolean]

If set to false, it will not be possible to remove tags (defaults to true)

editable (experimental) - [?boolean]

If set to true, it will be possible to edit the display value of the tags (defaults to false)

allowDupes - [?boolean]

If set to true, it will be possible to add tags with the same value (defaults to false)

modelAsStrings - [?boolean]

If set to true, all values added will be strings, and not objects (defaults to false)

trimTags - [?boolean]

If set to false, the tags could contain leading and trailing spaces (defaults to true)

Validation (optional)

validators - [?Validators[]]

An array of Validators (custom or Angular's) that will validate the tag before adding it to the list of items. It is possible to use multiple validators.

errorMessages - [?Object{error: message}]

An object whose key is the name of the error (ex. required) and the value is the message you want to display to your users

Autocomplete (optional)

onlyFromAutocomplete - [?boolean]

If set to true, it will be possible to add new items only from the autocomplete dropdown

Tags as Objects (optional)

identifyBy - [?any]

Any value you want your tag object to be defined by (defaults to value)

displayBy - [?string]

The string displayed in a tag object (defaults to display)

Outputs (optional)

onAdd - [?onAdd($event: string)]

Event fired when an item has been added

onRemove - [?onRemove($event: string)]

Event fired when an item has been removed

onSelect - [?onSelect($event: string)]

Event fired when an item has been selected

onFocus - [?onFocus($event: string)]

Event fired when the input is focused - will return current input value

onBlur - [?onBlur($event: string)]

Event fired when the input is blurred - will return current input value

onTextChange - [?onTextChange($event: string)]

Event fired when the input value changes

onPaste - [?onPaste($event: string)]

Event fired when the text is pasted into the input (only if addOnPaste is set to true)

onValidationError - [?onValidationError($event: string)]

Event fired when the validation fails

onTagEdited - [?onTagEdited($event: TagModel)]

Event fired when a tag is edited

API for TagInputDropdownComponent

TagInputDropdownComponent is a proxy between ng2-tag-input and ng2-material-dropdown.

autocompleteObservable [experimental] - [(text: string) => Observable<Response>]

A function that takes a string (current input value) and returns an Observable (ex. http.get()) with an array of items wit the same structure as autocompleteItems (see below). Make sure you retain the scope of your class or function when using this property. It can be used to popuplate the autocomplete with items coming from an async request.

showDropdownIfEmpty - [?boolean]

If set to true, the dropdown of the autocomplete will be shown as soon as the user focuses on the form

autocompleteItems - [?string[] | AutoCompleteModel[]]

An array of items to populate the autocomplete dropdown

offset - [?string]

Offset to adjust the position of the dropdown with absolute values (defaults to '0 0')

focusFirstElement - [?boolean]

If set to true, the first item of the dropdown will be automatically focused (defaults to false)

minimumTextLength - [?number]

Minimum text length in order to display the autocomplete dropdown (defaults to 1)

limitItemsTo - [?number]

Number of items to display in the autocomplete dropdown

identifyBy - [?string]

Just like for tag-input, this property defines the property of the value displayed of the object passed to the autocomplete

displayBy - [?string]

Just like for tag-input, this property defines the property of the unique value of the object passed to the autocomplete

matchingFn - [?matchingFn(value: string, target: TagModel): boolean]

Use this property if you are not happy with the default matching and want to provide your own implementation. The first value is the value of the input text, the second value corresponds to the value of each autocomplete item passed to the component

appendToBody - [?boolean]

If set to false, the dropdown will not be appended to the body, but will remain in its parent element. Useful when using the components inside popups or dropdowns. Defaults to true.

The property autocompleteItems can be an array of strings or objects. Interface for AutoCompleteModel (just like TagModel) is:

interface AutoCompleteModel {
   value: any;
   display: string;
}

The input text will be matched against both the properties.

More options to customise the dropdown will follow.

Basic Example

@Component({
    selector: 'app',
    template: `<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items'></tag-input>`
});
export class App {
    items = ['Pizza', 'Pasta', 'Parmesan'];
}

<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items'></tag-input>

Advanced usage

Using an array of objects

// itemsAsObjects = [{value: 0, display: 'Angular'}, {value: 1, display: 'React'}];
<tag-input [ngModel]="itemsAsObjects"></tag-input>

Using an array of with custom identifyBy and displayBy

// itemsAsObjects = [{id: 0, name: 'Angular'}, {id: 1, name: 'React'}];
<tag-input [ngModel]="itemsAsObjects" [identifyBy]="'id'" [displayBy]="'name'"></tag-input>

Editable tags (experimental)

<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items' [editable]='true' (onTagEdited)="onTagEdited($event)"></tag-input>

Static Tags (not removable)

<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items' [removable]='false'></tag-input>

Max number of items

<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items' [maxItems]='5'></tag-input>

If the value of the model will contain more tags than maxItems, maxItems will be replaced with the current size of the model.

Autocomplete

<tag-input [ngModel]="['@item']">
       <tag-input-dropdown [autocompleteItems]="[{display: 'Item1', value: 0}, 'item2', 'item3']">
       </tag-input-dropdown>
</tag-input>

This will accept items only from the autocomplete dropdown:

<tag-input [ngModel]="['@item']"
           [onlyFromAutocomplete]="true">
    <tag-input-dropdown [showDropdownIfEmpty]="true"
                        [autocompleteItems]="['iTem1', 'item2', 'item3']">
    </tag-input-dropdown>
</tag-input>

Define a template for your menu items

<tag-input [ngModel]="['@item']"
           [onlyFromAutocomplete]="true">
    <tag-input-dropdown [showDropdownIfEmpty]="true"
                        [autocompleteItems]="['iTem1', 'item2', 'item3']">
        <template let-item="item" let-index="index">
            {{ index }}: {{ item.display }}
        </template>
    </tag-input-dropdown>
</tag-input>

Populate items using an Observable

public requestAutocompleteItems = (text: string): Observable<Response> => {
    const url = `https://my.api.com/search?q=${text}`;
    return this.http
        .get(url)
        .map(data => data.json());
};

<tag-input [ngModel]="['@item']">
    <tag-input-dropdown [autocompleteObservable]='requestAutocompleteItems'></tag-input-dropdown>
</tag-input>

Additional keys to separate tags

If you want to use more keys to separate items, add them to separatorKeys as an array of keyboard key codes.

<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items' separatorKeys="[32]"></tag-input>

Validation

Create some validation methods in your component:

class MyComponent {
    private startsWithAt(control: FormControl) {
        if (control.value.charAt(0) !== '@') {
            return {
                'startsWithAt@': true
            };
        }

        return null;
    }

    private endsWith$(control: FormControl) {
        if (control.value.charAt(control.value.length - 1) !== '$') {
            return {
                'endsWith$': true
            };
        }

        return null;
    }

    public validators = [this.startsWithAt, this.endsWith$];

    public errorMessages = {
        'startsWithAt@': 'Your items need to start with "@"',
        'endsWith$': 'Your items need to end with "$"'
    };
}

Pass them to the tag-input component:

<tag-input [ngModel]="['@item']"
           [errorMessages]="errorMessages"
           [validators]="validators">
</tag-input>

Items Transformer

Set up a transformer, which is a function that takes the item's string as parameter, and should return the transformed string.

class MyComponent {
    public transformer(item: string): string {
        return `@${item}`;
    }
}

Every item entered will be prefixed with @.

<tag-input [ngModel]="['@item']" [transform]="transformer"></tag-input>

Events

Set up some methods that will run when its relative event is fired.

<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items'
           (onBlur)="onInputBlurred($event)"
           (onFocus)="onInputFocused($event)"
           (onSelect)="onSelected($event)"
           (onRemove)="onItemRemoved($event)"
           (onTextChange)="onTextChange($event)"
           (onAdd)="onItemAdded($event)">
</tag-input>

Readonly

If readonly is passed to the tag-input, it won't be possible to select, add and remove items.

<tag-input [ngModel]="['Javascript', 'Typescript']" [readonly]="true"></tag-input>

Custom items template

Define your own template, but remember to set up the needed events using the input reference.

<tag-input [ngModel]="['@item']" [modelAsStrings]="true" #input>
    <template let-item="item" let-index="index"> <!-- DEFINE HERE YOUR TEMPLATE -->
        <span>
            <!-- YOU MAY ACTUALLY DISPLAY WHATEVER YOU WANT IF YOU PASS AN OBJECT AS ITEM -->
            <!-- ex. item.myDisplayValue -->

            item: {{ item }}
        </span>
        <delete-icon (click)="input.removeItem(item, index)"></delete-icon>
    </template>
</tag-input>

Built-in Themes

If you don't like how the default theme looks, or you just need it to fit in a different design, you can choose 3 new themes: bootstrap, dark and minimal.

<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items' theme='bootstrap'></tag-input>
<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items' theme='minimal'></tag-input>
<tag-input [(ngModel)]='items' theme='dark'></tag-input>

You still don't like them? It's fine, read the next section.

Customization

Thanks to the newly introduced component inheritance, it is possible to finally customize the component with your own settings. It is not super straightforward, but you can finally define your own templates and styles. Let's see how it's done.

Unfortunately this won't work with tag-input-dropdown. Seeking a solution for this.

The first thing to do, is to define a new component and extend tag-input:

import { Component, forwardRef,  animate, trigger, state, style, transition, keyframes} from '@angular/core';
import { TagInputComponent } from 'ng2-tag-input';
import { NG_VALUE_ACCESSOR } from '@angular/forms';

// all this boilerplate is needed
@Component({
    selector: 'custom-tag-input', // or whatever you want
    providers: [{
        provide: NG_VALUE_ACCESSOR,
        useExisting: forwardRef(() => CustomComponent),
        multi: true
    }],

    // not needed, but you may want it
    styleUrls: [ './custom.scss' ],

    // you can add your own, but for now let's go with this
    templateUrl: '{{ node_modules }}/ng2-tag-input/dist/modules/components/tag-input.template.html'
    // or
    // template: require('ng2-tag-input/dist/modules/components/tag-input.template.html'),

    animations: [
        trigger('flyInOut', [
            state('in', style({transform: 'translateX(0)'})),
            transition(':enter', [
                animate(200, keyframes([
                    style({opacity: 0, offset: 0}),
                    style({opacity: 0.5, offset: 0.3}),
                    style({opacity: 1, offset: 1.0})
                ]))
            ]),
            transition(':leave', [
                animate(150, keyframes([
                    style({opacity: 1, transform: 'translateX(0)', offset: 0}),
                    style({opacity: 1, transform: 'translateX(-15px)', offset: 0.7}),
                    style({opacity: 0, transform: 'translateX(100%)', offset: 1.0})
                ]))
            ])
        ])
    ]
})
export class CustomComponent extends TagInputComponent { }

And here is where we define our own styles:

// I'm overwriting the variables
$tag-color: #222;
$tag-border-radius: 100px;
$color-primary-default: #000;
// have a look at https://github.com/Gbuomprisco/ng2-tag-input/tree/master/modules/components/themes
// for having an idea on how to change the variables and how they're defined

@import "~ng2-tag-input/dist/modules/components/tag-input.style.scss";

We now need to register this newly created component. Here is how our app module looks like:

// .. all other imports
import { TagInputModule } from 'ng2-tag-input';
import { CustomComponent } from './custom/custom.component'; // my newly defined component

@NgModule({
    imports: [
        BrowserModule,
        CommonModule,
        FormsModule,

        TagInputModule, // we need this here
    ],
    declarations: [ Home, CustomComponent ], // we need this here
    bootstrap: [ Home ], // this is just an example
    entryComponents: [ Home ] // this is just an example
})
export class AppModule {}
platformBrowserDynamic().bootstrapModule(AppModule);

Use tags without a form

It is possible to use <tag> components independently from the tag-input component. In order to do so, pass to the component the input model (TagModel).

Notice: by default, these are unstyled. You are free to add the required styles yourself. For example, just add a class tag. If you wish to copy the same style as the one used in the component, please have a look at source code.

<div class="flex">
    <tag [model]="'Tag 1'" class='tag'></tag>
    <tag [model]="'Tag 2'" class='tag'></tag>
    <tag [model]="'Tag 3'" [readonly]="true" class='tag'></tag>
</div>

Ok - cool stuff. But when will you fix the issue I created?

Do please read this great post by Micheal Bromley: http://www.michaelbromley.co.uk/blog/529/why-i-havent-fixed-your-issue-yet. No, I don't have babies, but am not 24/7 coding :)

Contributing/Pull Requests

Contributions are highly welcome! No, there is no guideline on how to do it. Just make sure to lint and unit test your changes. We'll figure out the rest with a couple of messages...