Autocomplete JavaScript module

Question

I have created a custom autocomplete function. The autocomplete field is populated with user name and last name from the content profile.

It is possible that there will be few users with the same name and last name. How I can pass content type ID to Drupal autocomplete, and add this ID to a hidden form field, so I can be more accurate?

I don't want to put the content type ID straight to autocomplete field, so I need some callback to current implementation.

Answer 1

Thanks to @googletorp advice the solutions is so easy and I want to share it with others. All I need was to overwrite two Drupal autocomplete object functions: found and select.

My autocomplete works on content profile fields. I pass nid of selected profiles to JS:

PHP:

function messagi_autocomplete($string) {
  global $user;

    $cache = cache_get('messagi_auto_complete_'.$string);
    $items = array();

    if ($cache) {

        $items = $cache->data;

    } else {

        $sql = "
              SELECT 
                n.nid AS id
              FROM 
                node as n
              WHERE 
                n.type = 'profile'
              AND
                u.status = 0
          ";
          $result = db_query($sql);
          $disabled = array();
          while($obj = db_fetch_object($result)) {
              $disabled[] = $obj->id;
          }




          $items = array();
          $sql = "
                        SELECT
                    profile.nid AS nid,
                    profile.field_profile_name_value AS name,
                    profile.field_profile_surname_value AS surname
                  FROM 
                    content_type_profile AS profile
                  WHERE  
                    lower(profile.field_profile_name_value) LIKE lower('%s%%')
                  OR lower(profile.field_profile_surname_value) LIKE lower('%s%%')
                  LIMIT 10
          ";
          $result = db_query($sql, $string, $string);  
          $sql = NULL;
          while($obj = db_fetch_object($result)) {
            if (! in_array($obj->nid, $disabled)) {
                  $key = check_plain($obj->name).' '.check_plain($obj->surname);
                  $items['nids'][$key] = (int) $obj->nid;
                  $items[$key] = $key.', '.check_plain($obj->venue);
            }
          } 
            if (! empty($items)) {

                cache_set('messagi_auto_complete_'.$string, $items, 'cache', 1000);     

            }
          $disabled = NULL; 


    }

  print drupal_to_js($items); 
  exit();   
}

JS:

$(document).ready(function() {    if
    (Drupal.jsEnabled) {
            Drupal.jsAC.prototype.found = function (matches) {
              if (!this.input.value.length) {
                return false;
              }

              var ul = document.createElement('ul');
              var ac = this;
              for (key in matches) {
                var li = document.createElement('li');
                //to avoid of showing nids object in the select list 
                if (key !== 'nids') {
                    $(li)
                      .html('<div>'+ matches[key] +'</div>')
                      .mousedown(function () {
    ac.select(this); })
                      .mouseover(function () {
    ac.highlight(this); })
                      .mouseout(function () { ac.unhighlight(this); });
                    li.autocompleteValue = key;
                    $(ul).append(li);
                } else {
                 //add all nids to prototype
                    Drupal.jsAC.prototype.nids = matches[key];
                }
               }
                //rest of the code
              }
            };

            Drupal.jsAC.prototype.select = function (node) {
              //get selected value nid and put it on form hidden field
              $('#edit-nid').val(Drupal.jsAC.prototype.nids[node.autocompleteValue]);
              this.input.value = node.autocompleteValue;
            };    
} })

I hope this help somebody in the future. Thanks for the others advice to this code.

Answer 2

If you want to use the default Drupal autocomplete, your best bet it to add the id to the autocomplete and then use additional custom JS to move the id into a hidden field.

The other solution would be to overwrite the prototype functions created by Drupal and add extra handling there.