Jquery Autocomplete - No Result Message

I would like the autocomplete to display 'no results' in it's drop down list if no result are found. My situation is like the JQuery default example. $(function() { var availa

Solution 1:

Here's one way you could accomplish this:

$(function() {
    var availableTags = [ /* snip */];  
    varNoResultsLabel = "No Results";

    $("#tags").autocomplete({
        source: function(request, response) {
            var results = $.ui.autocomplete.filter(availableTags, request.term);

            if (!results.length) {
                results = [NoResultsLabel];
            }

            response(results);
        },
        select: function (event, ui) {
            if (ui.item.label === NoResultsLabel) {
                event.preventDefault();
            }
        },
        focus: function (event, ui) {
            if (ui.item.label === NoResultsLabel) {
                event.preventDefault();
            }
        }
    });
});

Basically, you need to provide a function reference as the source to the autocomplete. Inside of that function, you can use the same utility function ($.ui.autocomplete.filter) to filter down the results. Then you can see if the results array is empty. If it is, you can add a default message to the results list.

The other two options I've specified prevent the No Results option from being selected or focused.

Example:http://jsfiddle.net/er6LF/

Solution 2:

This fiddle has a working is a functional example for you have: http://jsfiddle.net/andrewodri/wAg4g/

I changed this:

$("#tags").autocomplete({source: availableTags});

To this:

$("#tags").autocomplete(availableTags);

You can see it's running on the latest version of jQuery, and has the plugin linked on under "Manage Resources" taken from: http://bassistance.de/jquery-plugins/jquery-plugin-autocomplete/.

Update: The code above works if you happen to be using the plugin referenced... If not, it seems to work as is :) Please note that I did add the code within $(document).ready();, which may have been preventing if from working. Please see this forked fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/andrewodri/VLKwe/

Hope that helps!