I’ve lost count of the number of hours I’ve spent in the past building "Live Search" features.
In the old days, you had to write custom AJAX listeners, handle the "white flash" of reloads, and manually manage the browser's history. Later, with Turbo 7, we used Turbo Frames, but that meant wrapping everything in specific tags and losing the "state" of the rest of the page.
In 2026, the game has changed. With Turbo 8 Page Morphing, we can build a live-filtering search bar that feels like a heavy React app, but uses 100% standard Rails controllers and almost zero custom JavaScript.
The secret is that Turbo 8 can "morph" the page - it refreshes the HTML but keeps your scroll position and the focus inside the search input perfectly intact. Here is how to build it in 3 steps.
STEP 1: Enable Morphing
First, we need to tell our application that we want to use the new Morphing behavior instead of the old "Replace" behavior.
Open your main application layout and add these two tags to the <head>.
<!-- app/views/layouts/application.html.erb -->
<head>
<!-- ... -->
<%= turbo_refreshes_with method: :morph, scroll: :preserve %>
<%= yield :head %>
</head>
STEP 2: The Search Form and Controller
We are going to use a standard HTML form. No remote: true, no complex setups. Just a simple GET request.
# app/controllers/products_controller.rb
class ProductsController < ApplicationController
def index
@products = Product.all
if params[:query].present?
@products = @products.where("name ILIKE ?", "%#{params[:query]}%")
end
end
end
In your view, create the search bar. The "trick" here is that we want the form to submit as the user types. Since HTML doesn't do this natively, we use a tiny 2-line Stimulus controller that I keep in every project as a "utility" tool.
<!-- app/views/products/index.html.erb -->
<div class="p-8">
<div data-controller="autosave">
<%= form_with url: products_path, method: :get,
data: { autosave_target: "form", turbo_frame: "_top" } do |f| %>
<%= f.text_field :query,
placeholder: "Search products...",
value: params[:query],
data: { action: "input->autosave#save" },
class: "border-2 border-black p-2 w-full" %>
<% end %>
</div>
<div id="products_list" class="mt-8 grid grid-cols-3 gap-4">
<%= render @products %>
</div>
</div>
STEP 3: The Utility Controller (The only JS you need)
This is the only JavaScript we need. It is a reusable "autosave" controller that simply submits the form whenever you type.
// app/javascript/controllers/autosave_controller.js
import { Controller } from "@hotwired/stimulus"
export default class extends Controller {
static targets = ["form"]
save() {
// This triggers the standard Rails form submission
this.formTarget.requestSubmit()
}
}
How it works (The Magic)
In the old days, calling requestSubmit() as you typed would be a disaster. The page would reload, you would lose focus on the text box, and the cursor would jump to the beginning of the line.
With Turbo 8 Morphing:
- You type the letter "A".
- Stimulus tells the form to submit.
- Rails returns the entire index page with only the "A" products.
- Turbo 8 compares the new HTML to the current page.
- It sees that the text input is the same, so it leaves it alone (preserving your cursor and focus).
- It sees the product list has changed, so it morphs those elements seamlessly.
The user perceives a lightning-fast, reactive live filter, but you are just writing standard, boring Rails code.
Summary
As a solo developer, your goal is to stay out of "JavaScript Land" as much as possible. By leveraging Turbo 8 Page Morphing:
- No JSON APIs: You don't need to build a search endpoint.
- No Manual DOM Updates: You don't have to write code to append or remove items.
- No Focus Issues: Browsers handle the state of the input automatically.
This is the "One-Person Framework" at its best: high-end features with zero-maintenance code.
