Question

I have followed this tutorial which uses jQuery UI to generate Facebook tokens like:
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/javascript-ajax/how-to-use-the-jquery-ui-autocomplete-widget/

My problem is I need to pass two values thru JSON: the ID and the NAME.
the server side script looks like this:

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1', true);
include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/inrees/inrees/communaute/includes/_db.php');

$param = $_GET["term"];
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM comm_carnet, in_emails 
                       WHERE carnet_iduser=emails_id 
                         AND emails_id!='".$_COOKIE['INREES_ID']."'  
                         AND emails_nom REGEXP '^$param'");

//build array of results
for ($x = 0, $numrows = mysql_num_rows($query); $x < $numrows; $x++) {
    $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query);
    $friends[$x] = array("name" = > $row["emails_nom"], "id" = > $row["emails_id"]);
}

//echo JSON to page
$response = $_GET["callback"]."(".json_encode($friends).")";

echo $response;

the echo from the server side script is:

([{"name":"dupont","id":"34998"},{"name":"castro","id":"34996"},{"name":"castelbajac","id":"34995"}])

(which is exactly what I need)

I am passing the the "name" array but not the "id" which needs to be a hidden input with the corresponding id from the database, the html page where the call to the php is done looks like this:

//attach autocomplete
$("#to").autocomplete({

    //define callback to format results
    source: function (req, add) {

        //pass request to server
        $.getJSON("messages_ajax.php?callback=?", req, function (data) {

            //create array for response objects
            var suggestions = [];

            //process response
            $.each(data, function (i, val) {
                suggestions.push(val.name);
            });

            //pass array to callback
            add(suggestions);
        });
    },

    //define select handler
    select: function (e, ui) {

        //create formatted friend
        var friend = ui.item.value,
            span = $("<span>").text(friend),
            a = $("<a>").addClass("remove").attr({
                href: "javascript:",
                title: "Remove " + friend
            }).text("x").appendTo(span);
        $("<input />", {
            value: "id",
            type: "hidden",
            name: "id"
        }).appendTo(span);
        //add friend to friend div
        span.insertBefore("#to");
    },

    //define select handler
    change: function () {
        //prevent 'to' field being updated and correct position
        $("#to").val("").css("top", 2);
    }
});

//add click handler to friends div
$("#friends").click(function () {
    //focus 'to' field
    $("#to").focus();
});

//add live handler for clicks on remove links
$(".remove", document.getElementById("friends")).live("click", function () {

    //remove current friend
    $(this).parent().remove();

    //correct 'to' field position
    if ($("#friends span").length === 0) {
        $("#to").css("top", 0);
    }
});

so is basically where you see the comment: "//define select handler" that something needs to be done but I can’t do it!

I added the line:

$("<input />", {value:"id", type:"hidden", name:"id"}).appendTo(span);

but it does not fetch my array "id".

Answer 1

your code should be:

UPDATE With DEMO

$(function() {
    $("#to").autocomplete({
        //define callback to format results
        source: function(req, add) {
            //pass request to server
            $.getJSON("json.json", req,
            function(data) {
                add($.map(data,
                function(item) {
                    return {
                        id: item.id,
                        label: item.name,
                        value: item.name
                    }
                }));
            });
        },
        //define select handler
        select: function(e, ui) {
            $('<a class="del_friend" href="#' + ui.item.id + '" title="remove">' + ui.item.label + '<span>x</span>' + 
              '<input name="friend[]" type="hidden" id="friend_' + ui.item.id + '" value="' + ui.item.id + '" /></a>').insertBefore('#to');
        },
        //define select handler
        change: function() {
            $("#to").val("");
        }
    });
 //delete friends
    $('a.del_friend').live('click', function(e) {
        e.preventDefault();
        var friend_id = this.hash.split('#')[1];
        alert(friend_id); //AJAX Call and delete item by it's ID
        $(this).fadeOut(500).remove()
    });
});

• NOTE: this assuming your json code look like:

  [{“name”:”dupont”,”id”:”34998″},{“name”:”castro”,”id”:”34996″},{“name”:”castelbajac”,”id”:”34995″}]

---

• USEFULL READS: http://jqueryui.com/demos/autocomplete/#remote-jsonp