Question

I’m trying to make an array out of a text file My django/python code is

f = open('text file path here', 'r')
names = []
for line in f:
    names.append(line)
f.close()
return render_to_response('frontend.html', {'names'}, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

Then my frontend.html takes the array, names, and uses the data for autocomplete in a form whose id=’status’:

<script>

var names = {{ names }};

$(document).ready(function(){

            $("#status").autocomplete(names);
       });

</script>

Nothing happens in the field on frontend.html when I start typing someone’s name. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

You can build an url endpoint inside your url.py and in your views you can return a response with names in JSON and fetch them in your template using a getJSON call.

View

from django.utils import simplejson

def names(request):
   ..build your name collection
   data = simplejson.dumps(names)
   return HttpResponse(data, mimetype='application/javascript')

Template

$.getJSON('/your_json_endpoint/names/', function(data) {
// data contains your names serialized

});

You need to set the endpoint in your URLConf https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/topics/http/urls/

See here for a complete example: http://mitchfournier.com/2011/06/06/getting-started-with-ajax-in-django-a-simple-jquery-approach/