jQuery Autocomplete (Remote) - example

Question

I was really hoping to avoid posting a new question, but I cannot find a functioning example of the jQuery Autocomplete Remote feature that includes both the calling page and the "search" page. The jQueryUI "Demos & Documentation" section doesn't include the source of "search.php"

I've tried dozens of combinations, but here's what I started with:

<style>
    .ui-autocomplete-loading { background: white url('images/ui-anim_basic_16x16.gif') right center no-repeat; }
    </style>
    <script>
    $(function() {
        function log( message ) {
            $( "<div/>" ).text( message ).prependTo( "#log" );
            $( "#log" ).attr( "scrollTop", 0 );
        }

        $( "#birds" ).autocomplete({
            source: "search.php",
            minLength: 1,
            select: function( event, ui ) {
                log( ui.item ?
                    "Selected: " + ui.item.value + " aka " + ui.item.id :
                    "Nothing selected, input was " + this.value );
            }
        });
    });
    </script>



<div class="demo">

<div class="ui-widget">
    <label for="birds">Birds: </label>
    <input id="birds" />
</div>

<div class="ui-widget" style="margin-top:2em; font-family:Arial">
    Result:
    <div id="log" style="height: 200px; width: 300px; overflow: auto;" class="ui-widget-content"></div>
</div>

</div>

and search.php:

    $conn = mysql_connect("localhost", "USERNAME", "PASSWORD");
    mysql_select_db("DATABASE", $conn);
    $q = strtolower($_GET["birds"]);

    $query = mysql_query("select FIELD from TABLE where FIELD like '%$q%'");
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
    echo json_encode($row);
}

Does anyone have code snippets that show both sides of this equation that they can share? Thanks so much to any help you can provide.

Answer 1

Here is the correct code for search.php:

    $conn = mysql_connect("localhost", "USERNAME", "PASSWORD");
    mysql_select_db("DATABASE", $conn);
    $q = strtolower($_GET["term"]);

$return = array();
    $query = mysql_query("select FIELD from TABLE where FIELD like '%$q%'");
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
    array_push($return,array('label'=>$row['FIELD'],'value'=>$row['FIELD']));
}
echo(json_encode($return));

Some key points

• The word term is nowhere in the sample calling page given by jqueryui, but this is the Querystring name used
• You must create an array of the value, and then json encode before returning

I hope this helps some folks out in the future!