jQuery UI Autocomplete Formatting for Multiple Elements

Question

I have the jQuery UI Autocomplete setup to my liking and working perfectly, but there is one fatal flaw. In my autocomplete I use a custom display like this example. I hav

Answer 1

The only way I can make this work is by changing my code from:

addautocomplete($('.tagEntry'));

To:

$('.tagEntry').each(function() {
     addautocomplete(this);
});

Answer 2

Alternatively:

$(..).autocomplete(..).each(function () {
   $.data(this, "autocomplete")._renderItem = function (ul, item) { ... } })

Answer 3

You simply need to override the function via the object prototype, instead of on a single instance.

$.ui.autocomplete.prototype._renderItem = function( ul, item ) {
  return $( '<li></li>' )
  .data( 'item.autocomplete', item )
  .append( '<a>' + item.label + '<br/><small>' + item.desc + '<small></a>' )
  .appendTo( ul );
};

Overwrite the function before activating any autocompletes, but after the script has loaded.