ComboBox // Downward Compatibility of next

[felixguendling]

Hi! Thank you for providing this library! :)

I just tried to upgrade our UI at github.com/motis-project/motis over to bits-ui next.

I realized that the Combobox API changed fundamentally and a simple upgrade isn't possible.

We're using the Combobox for geocoding addresses/places/etc., example can be found here:
https://europe.motis-project.de/

Problems:

• The previous version was quite generic, accepting any type T. Now a string is required. Maybe I could make this work with putting JSON.stringify() and JSON.parse everywhere. I liked the previous version more because it allowed me to write clean code.
• The new version seems to apply some kind of transform which moves the combobox around. See screenshot.

So now the actual question: Is next intended to be downward compatible (drop-in replacement) and I should just wait (or try to contribute a fix)? Or are breaking changes intended and I need to find a fix for both issues in my code base?

[huntabyte]

Breaking changes are expected. The entire codebase was rewritten, and it includes a ton of bug fixes that were almost impossible to address in the 0.x releases.

The generic Combobox while nice for use cases like this, was overkill and limiting (in terms of typeahead, form autofill, hidden input rendering, etc.).

The way you can accomplish similar functionality that you had before is to use the onValueChange callback to set the selected based on the string identifier of the item

[felixguendling]

<ComboBox.Input ...><Input bind:value={inputValue} /></ComboBox.Input> doesn't seem to do the job

[felixguendling]

Next try:

<script lang="ts">
	// ...
	let ref = $state<HTMLElement | null>();
	$inspect(ref);
</script>

<Combobox.Input	{ref} ...></Combobox.Input>

The $inspect(ref) always prints init undefined (no further updates).

[huntabyte]

bind:ref

[felixguendling]

This works! Thank you very much.
Our project is now up-to-date, using next for shadcn-svelte and bits-ui.
And thanks again for providing these libraries!
Rewriting all of them looks like a lot of work.

[huntabyte]

You're welcome! It has been quite the effort for over a year now but I am much happier with the state of the projects today!