Question

It doesnt matter what i type into the textbox, always shows the whole list. Heres my code:

$("#tb_country").autocomplete({
  source: function(request, response) {
    $.ajax({
      url: "/index.php/ajax_calls/select_countries",
      dataType: "json",
      data:  request,
      success: function(data) {
        response(data);
      }
    });
  },
  minLength: 3
});

The select_countries function returns JSON data in the right format for autocomplete i.e. [{“label”:”United States”},{“label”:”Canada”}……..]
Please can someone tell me whats wrong with this, thanx

Answer 1

Make sure you actually filter your response in the server-side code, as described here:

The Autocomplete plugin does not filter the results, instead a query
string is added with a term field, which the server-side script should
use for filtering the results. For example, if the source option is
set to “http://example.com” and the user types foo, a GET request
would be made to http://example.com?term=foo.

You do send the correct request (with term param filled by the current value of input element), but most probably don’t use it in the server code.