School name autocomplete for student and educator signup

[mwvolo]

For: https://openstax.atlassian.net/browse/DATA-300

Summary

Replaces the two school-name fields in signup with one shared, accessible autocomplete that produces clean data:

• Student signup previously used a native HTML5 <datalist> populated from the openstax.org CMS endpoint — browser-styled dark dropdown, names only, and whatever text was in the box saved as free text (school_id never set).
• Educator profile (step 4) was a plain free-text field (shown when SheerID fails/is unavailable or on the CS form).

What changed

• New School.search scope on the local Salesforce-synced schools table: case-insensitive substring match + trigram typo tolerance (uses the existing gist_trgm_ops index), prefix matches ranked first, max 10 results.
• New unauthenticated GET /i/schools?q= endpoint (Newflow::SchoolsController) returning {id, name, city, state}. The cross-origin CMS dependency is removed entirely.
• Shared ARIA combobox component (newflow/school_autocomplete.js, no new dependencies): debounced fetch with abort, keyboard navigation, suggestions show name + city, state to disambiguate same-named schools, and an always-present Use "<typed text>" footer row so schools not in our list can still be entered.
• Clean data path: picking a suggestion sets a hidden signup[school_id]; both handlers link the real School record and store its canonical name in self_reported_school. Editing after picking clears the link. Free text behaves exactly as before. The educator CS-form fuzzy match is skipped when a real pick was made; SheerID flows are untouched.
• Graceful degradation: if the endpoint is down, the field just acts as free text — signup is never blocked.

Tests

• Model specs for School.search (ranking, typo tolerance, min length, cap)
• Controller specs for the endpoint (JSON shape, blank/short queries, logged-out access)
• Handler specs for valid / blank / nonexistent school_id on both flows, including fuzzy-match skip
• 3 selenium (js: true) feature specs driving the real dropdown: pick from list, use-as-entered, edit-clears-link

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR replaces the existing school-name inputs in Newflow student signup and educator profile completion with a shared, accessible autocomplete backed by a new unauthenticated /i/schools?q= endpoint, aiming to reduce free-text variance and improve data cleanliness by linking to canonical School records when selected.

Changes:

• Added School.search for substring + trigram-tolerant autocomplete queries (ranked, capped) and a new Newflow::SchoolsController#index JSON endpoint.
• Updated student and educator signup/profile flows to accept school_id and persist both the canonical School link (when valid) and the canonical name into self_reported_school.
• Introduced a shared ARIA combobox UI component (OxSchoolAutocomplete) with associated styling, and added model/controller/handler/feature specs.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 18 out of 18 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
spec/models/school_spec.rb	Adds specs covering .search matching, ranking, typo tolerance, and caps.
spec/handlers/newflow/student_signup/signup_form_spec.rb	Adds handler specs for valid/blank/invalid school_id behavior.
spec/handlers/newflow/educator_signup/complete_profile_spec.rb	Adds handler specs for school_id linking and fuzzy-match skip.
spec/features/newflow/school_autocomplete_spec.rb	Adds JS feature specs for selecting, use-as-entered, and edit-clears-link.
spec/controllers/newflow/schools_controller_spec.rb	Adds controller specs for JSON shape, short/missing queries, and logged-out access.
config/routes.rb	Adds route for GET /i/schools to the newflow schools controller.
config/locales/en.yml	Adds i18n string for the “Use {school}” footer row label.
app/views/newflow/student_signup/student_signup_form.html.erb	Replaces <datalist> usage with the new autocomplete container + hidden school_id.
app/views/newflow/educator_signup/educator_profile_form.html.erb	Wraps school field in autocomplete container and adds hidden school_id.
app/models/school.rb	Implements MAX_SEARCH_DISTANCE and .search scope-like class method.
app/handlers/newflow/student_signup/signup_form.rb	Adds school_id param handling and canonical-name persistence.
app/handlers/newflow/educator_signup/complete_profile.rb	Adds school_id param handling and canonical-name persistence.
app/controllers/newflow/schools_controller.rb	Implements the /i/schools JSON endpoint.
app/assets/stylesheets/newflow.scss	Adds styles for the autocomplete dropdown and active/utility rows.
app/assets/javascripts/newflow/school_autocomplete.js	Adds the shared ARIA combobox/autocomplete implementation.
app/assets/javascripts/newflow/newflow_ui.js.coffee	Removes the old CMS-backed <datalist> fetching implementation.
app/assets/javascripts/newflow/index.js	Requires the new autocomplete asset.
app/assets/javascripts/newflow/educator_complete_dynamic.js.coffee	Tightens selector to the visible text input in the school-name block.

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.