Question

I am having a strange issue. I am trying to use jQuery autocomplete with asmx web service. My JavaScript code is as:

$('#txtUsers').autocomplete('AjaxHandler.asmx/GetUserData', {
    width: 320,
    max: 5,
    minChars: 3,
    parse: function(data) {
        var items = data.d;
        var parsed = [];
        for (var i = 0; i < items.length; i++)
            parsed.push({
            data: [items[i]],
            value: items[i],
            result: [items[i]]
        });
        return parsed;
    }
});

and my web service code is:

[WebService]
[ScriptService]
public class AjaxHandler : WebService
{
    [WebMethod]
    public List<UserData> GetUserData(string q)
    {
        //My code here.....
    }
}

However my web method is not being called from autocomplete. However whenever I try to call the same web method from jQuery.ajax, it gets fired correctly. Any help?

Answer 1

I checked that autocomplete send get request, but you service accept only post requests. So, i see that you also found it.

I suggest to use simple HttpHandler, and return data as json using newton json serializer, because you web service retun ‘wrapped’ data.
It should be very simple handler:

List<UserData> items = GetUserDataItems();
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(items);

//retrun json to the client

Also at client code set dataType to json:

dataType: "json",

And parse like this:

parse: function (data) {
    return $.map(data, function (row, i) {
        return {
            data: row,
            value: row,
            result: row
        }
    });
},