AJAX Autocomplete Query from a MYSQL Table

Question

I wanted to implement an ajax based autocomplete feature for my searchbox, and i came across, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1118782/implementing-autocomplete-in-my-website.

Now what i wanted to know was that i attach a datasource to the control, but so far i have seen that the datasource requires a textbase schema, can't i like it to a query, where it control calls the query and it returns the records on which the filter of the control must apply.

Hope my question is clear

Answer 1

How do you think you can link it to a query on client-side?? You can link it to an AJAX call to the server, which returns the option-list. The control's filter will do the rest filtering on that option-list.

The best practice would be, to fire an AJAX on page load, to a server function, which will query to the database (MySQL in your case) and fetch the options-list in json format. Assign the option-list to as an input for autocomplete. (Its obviously better than to fire a ajax-request everytime user starts to type-in the search box.)

If you use jquery it can be something like this.

$(function(){  //runs on page load

$.ajax({
  type: "POST",
  url: "/searchlist/", //server function that returns the search list
  data: '',
  dataType: "json",
  success: function(json){
    search_choices = json.list; // search option list
    $("input#searchbox").autocomplete(search_choices, {
                               max: 4,
                               scroll: false,
                               autoFill: true,
                               multiple: true,
                               matchContains: true,
                               multipleSeparator: " ",
                               width: 180
                             });

  }
});

});

I can provide you with example in libraries other than jquery, but i hope this can make you find your way.

Edit: No, your database needn't to have sorted choices. It is your server function, that should be doing all the sorting. Use,

autocomplete( url_to_server_function, options)

and your server function will get search term (keyword user types in search-box), as get request. Filter your database there, and this is the place where you can hook related words along with the results. Just make a list of everything you want to show as suggestion, and return in serialize json format and let autocomplete to take care of matching and sorting the data.