How to create generic (reusable) JavaScript autocomplete function

Question

I now have a working JavaScript autocomplete function, thanks to help from many of you. Now I want to make the function reusable. There are three variables that need to be s

Answer 1

It looks like you're using jQuery, so you might want to implement it as a plugin.

(function($) {
  $.fn.bobsAutocomplete = function(resultFieldName, lookupURL) {
    this.autocomplete({
      source: function(request, response) {
          $.ajax({
              type: "POST",
              url: lookupURL,
              contentType: 'application/json',
              dataType: "json",
              data: JSON.stringify({prefixText: request.term, count: 20}),
              success: function(data) {
                  var output = jQuery.parseJSON(data.d);
                  response($.map(output, function(item) {
                      return {
                          label: item.Label + "(" + item.Value+ ")",
                          value: item.Value
                      }
                  }));
              },
              error: function(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
                  alert(textStatus);
              }
          });
      },
      minLength: 2,
      select: function(event, ui) {
          $('#' + resultFieldName).val(ui.item.value);
          return ui.item.label;
      }
    });
    return this;
  };
})(jQuery);

Usage:

$("#dotmatch").bobsAutocomplete("dotnumber", "/AutoSuggestJSTest/AutoSuggest.asmx/DOTList");