Hi all,
I use Autocomplete 1.0 Alpha mostly for form inputs bound to foreign
key columns. For instance I have a user_position table with two
columns: user_id and position_id. On new appointment form I have two
autocomplete text inputs with the following code:
<input type="text" id="user_id" class="ac_input" tabindex="1" />
<input type="text" id="position_id" class="ac_input" tabindex="2" /
>
As you can see the inputs do not have a name attribute, and when the
form is submitted their values are not sent, which is all right since
they will contain strings like:
'John Doe'
'Sales Manager'
whereas our backend expects something like:
23
14
which are the user_id for John Doe and position_id for Sales Manager.
To send these values I have two hidden inputs in the form like this:
<input type="hidden" name="user_id" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="position_id" value="">
Also I have the following code in the $().ready function:
$("#user_id").result(function(event, data, formatted) {
$("[EMAIL PROTECTED]").val(data[1]);
});
$("#position_id").result(function(event, data, formatted) {
$("[EMAIL PROTECTED]").val(data[1]);
});
As could be seen these functions stuff user_id and position_id values
(in our example 23 and 14) into the hidden inputs, and when the form
is submitted these values are sent:
user_id = 23
position_id = 14
The backend script then takes care of adding a record to our
user_position table containing those values.
I wonder how could the plugin code be modified to simplify the setup
by taking care of adding hidden inputs and updating the value of
hidden inputs as default behavior. I have successfully attempted a
simpler solution - writing a wrapper to perform these additional tasks
and invoke autocomplete as well. I hope my intention is clear enough,
if not, this is exactly the expected outcome:
Before:
<script type="text/javascript"
src="jquery.autocomplete-modified.js"></script>
<input type="text" name="user_id" class="ac_input" tabindex="1" />
After:
<input type="text" id="user_id" class="ac_input" tabindex="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="user_id" value="23">
Last word, I know this looks like a tall order, and I do not hope
someone will make a complete working mod for me, but rather would very
much appreciate helpful advise and directions.
Many thanks in advance
Majid
