jQuery Autocomplete with Special Characters (i.e. ö, Ä, é, or ß)

Question

How can I have autocomplete match on words with special characters, such as those in German: ö, Ä, é, or ß. For example, I\'d like \"mun\" to match \"München\" and \"Munchen

Answer 1

jQuery UI has a demo for this problem (accent folding) on their site: https://jqueryui.com/autocomplete/#folding

$(function() {
  var names = ["Jörn Zaefferer", "Scott González", "John Resig"];

  var accentMap = {
    "á": "a",
    "ö": "o"
  };
  var normalize = function(term) {
    var ret = "";
    for (var i = 0; i < term.length; i++) {
      ret += accentMap[term.charAt(i)] || term.charAt(i);
    }
    return ret;
  };

  $("#developer").autocomplete({
    source: function(request, response) {
      var matcher = new RegExp($.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(request.term), "i");
      response($.grep(names, function(value) {
        value = value.label || value.value || value;
        return matcher.test(value) || matcher.test(normalize(value));
      }));
    }
  });
});