Question

Jquery search by example:

<script>
    $(function() {
        var availableTags = [
            "ActionScript",
            "AppleScript",
            "Asp",
            "BASIC",
            "C",
            "C++",
            "Clojure",
            "COBOL",
            "ColdFusion",
            "Erlang",
            "Fortran",
            "Groovy",
            "Haskell",
            "Java",
            "JavaScript",
            "Lisp",
            "Perl",
            "PHP",
            "Python",
            "Ruby",
            "Scala",
            "Scheme"
        ];
        $("#tags").autocomplete({
            source: availableTags
        });
    });
</script>

<div class="demo">
    <div class="ui-widget">
        <label for="tags">Tags: </label>
        <input id="tags" />
    </div>
</div>
<!-- End demo -->

<div class="demo-description">
    <p>The Autocomplete widgets provides suggestions while you type into the field. Here the suggestions are tags for programming languages, give "ja" (for Java or JavaScript) a try.</p>
    <p>The datasource is a simple JavaScript array, provided to the widget using the source- option.</p>
</div>
<!-- End demo-description -->

There’s basically a variable with the autocomplete content, and that’s great and all, except I need something perhaps a little more complex. Instead of providing a list from a var/xml/sql I need to grab from an echo issued by a third party php script.

That php script will echo out the appropriate information depending on the query. i.e.: the user searches for customsearch.php?q=Lemons it will echo “Pineapples”.

Can someone help me?

Answer 1

Based on your other question, I’d assume you’re making an AJAX call to get the search results. Load them into an array and replace it in your example:

<script>
function GetSearchResults(){
    // make your ajax call here
    $.ajax({
      async: false,
      url: 'customsearch.php?q=Lemons',
      success: function(data) {
        var availableTags = [];
        // build an array from the response data here
        $( "#tags" ).autocomplete({
            source: availableTags
        });
      }
    });
}

$(function() {
    var availableTags = GetSearchResults();
});
</script>

<div class="demo">

<div class="ui-widget">
<label for="tags">Tags: </label>
<input id="tags" />
</div>

</div><!-- End demo -->

<div class="demo-description">
<p>The Autocomplete widgets provides suggestions while you type into the field. Here the suggestions     are tags for programming languages, give "ja" (for Java or JavaScript) a try.</p>
<p>The datasource is a simple JavaScript array, provided to the widget using the source-    option.</p>
</div><!-- End demo-description -->

Ideally you wouldn’t set async to false, but I’m trying not to make your brain explode if you aren’t familiar with callbacks.