Implement a typeahead for manytomany field

Question

I am looking for a robust solution to implement a typeahead (Twitter typeahead) for a manytomany field. Basically, something identical to the tag input field here in StackOverflow.

The default widget for manytomany is a multiselect. However, since I want the user to provide new values, I need to use a inputText widget. My question is, what would be the best way to implement this functionality so that I can later pass an array of models instances to a cleaning stage?

In my cleaning stage I plan on doing a loop through the elements to check if they exist in the db, create them if they don't and apply validators to each elements.

My initial intuition was to use a hidden field that would receive the actual fields from the typeahead via javascript manipulation. Thus the input field would not be part of the model, just serve as an input box for the user.

Answer 1

Why reinvent the wheel. You can simply use django-taggit together with selectize.js. By using both of them, you don't even need any customization.