Question

I am very new to programming and I am stumped with this problem.

I want to create am autocomplete textbox.

From what I see I would need to use json. However for the source of the json I need a url to a file script, and I do not quite get this part.

This is an example from http://jqueryui.com/demos/autocomplete/#option-source

$( "#birds" ).autocomplete({
        source: "search.php",
        minLength: 2,
        select: function( event, ui ) {
            log( ui.item ?
                "Selected: " + ui.item.value + " aka " + ui.item.id :
                "Nothing selected, input was " + this.value );
        }
    });

Does it mean that whenever I type something in the autocomplete textbox it accesses the file in the url and the file script would change dynamically according to my input?

Also, I can only see some examples of the url file in php. Can it be done in Django? such as specifying a url as the source and link that url with a view outputting the data?

Answer 1

Whenever you type something in the autocomplete textbox it accesses the url to retrieve the array of data. (Use firebug or chrome developer tools while testing the demo to see the HttpRequests sent as you type)

From the documentation you linked:

“When a String is used, the Autocomplete plugin expects that string to
point to a URL resource that will return JSON data.”

So yes, you can use Django as long as the URL returns JSON data.