jQuery UI autocomplete (combobox): how to fill it with the result of an AJAX request?

Question

Is it possible to work with combobox as with usual jquery-ui ajax autocomplete field?

What I need?

I want there will be some default options and when user try to

Answer 1

Here's a heavily modified version of the jQueryUI example (gist):

$.widget("ui.combobox", {
    _create: function() {
        var _self = this
            , options = $.extend({}, this.options, {
            minLength: 0,
            source: function(request, response) {
                if (!request.term.length) {
                    response(_self.options.initialValues);
                } else {
                    if (typeof _self.options.source === "function") {
                        _self.options.source(request, response);
                    } else if (typeof _self.options.source === "string") {
                        $.ajax({
                            url: _self.options.source,
                            data: request,
                            dataType: "json",
                            success: function(data, status) {
                                response(data);
                            },
                            error: function() {
                                response([]);
                            }
                        });
                    }
                }
            }
        });

        this.element.autocomplete(options);

        this.button = $(" ")
            .attr("tabIndex", -1)
            .attr("title", "Show All Items")
            .insertAfter(this.element)
            .button({
                icons: {
                    primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s"
                },
            text: false
            })
            .removeClass("ui-corner-all")
            .addClass("ui-corner-right ui-button-icon")
            .click(function() {
                if (_self.element.autocomplete("widget").is(":visible")) {
                    _self.element.autocomplete("close");
                    return;
                }
                _self.element.autocomplete("search", "");
                _self.element.focus();
        });
    }
});

Usage:

$("input_element_selector").combobox({
    initialValues: ['array', 'of', 'values'],
    source: /* <-- function or string performing remote search */,
    /* any other valid autocomplete options */
});

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/Jpqa8/

The widget uses the supplied initialValues array as the source when the length of the search is "0" (this happens when the user clicks the dropdown button).

Supply a source parameter (function or string) that performs the remote search. You can also use any other options you would usually use with the autocomplete widget.