Laravel 12 Select2 Ajax Autocomplete Search Example

This repository accompanies the blog post on ItStuffSolutions: Laravel 12 Select2 Ajax Autocomplete Search Example
It shows how to implement a dynamic, searchable dropdown using Select2 JS and Ajax in a Laravel 12 application.

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🚀 Features

• Live Ajax‐powered dropdown search with Select2.
• Real‐time server filtering for large datasets.
• Built with Laravel 12, jQuery, Select2 v4+ and Bootstrap styling.
• Easy to integrate or adapt in your own Laravel project.

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🧰 Prerequisites

• PHP >= 8.1 (compatible with Laravel 12)
• Composer
• A fresh (or existing) Laravel 12 application
• MySQL / SQLite / other supported DB configured
• Node & npm (optional, if you compile frontend assets)
• jQuery and Select2 included in your view

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⚙️ Installation & Setup

# Clone the repo (or create your project directory)
git clone <your-repo-url>
cd <your-repo-folder>

# Install PHP dependencies
composer install

# Copy environment file and set up your DB credentials
cp .env.example .env
# Update .env:
# DB_HOST=...
# DB_DATABASE=...
# DB_USERNAME=...
# DB_PASSWORD=...

# Generate Laravel application key
php artisan key:generate

# Run migrations (and optionally seed dummy data)
php artisan migrate

# (Optional) Install Node dependencies & compile assets
npm install
npm run dev

# Serve the app locally
php artisan serve