jquery.ui.combobox.ajax.js

This is an easy to implement tiny jQuery UI Widget that spawns a combobox that allows a user to search, select, from a select list, and throttles ajax calls against a datasource! Demo/Example here

$( document ).ready(function() {
	initializeComboBox('data.php', 'getItems', 'item_id', 'Select or type an item..');
	$( "#items" ).combobox();
});

initializeComboBox()

Parameter	Description
path	relative path to datasource file
method	the invoked function in the file
html element	html element that stores the current selection
placeholder text	the default text that appears in the select input

To integrate a select element with this widget, insert this html markup:

<form action="./" id="searchForm" method="post">
	<input type="hidden" name="item_id" id="item_id">
	Item ID: 
	<select id="items" size="25">
	<option selected="selected">{item.LABEL}</option>
	</select>
</form>

The data that results from the Ajax call must be an array of objects, structured with these attributes, then delivered as a JSON. Your implementation may vary depending on language used:

// basic php example of the array of objects structure
<?php
	// this function name must match the name of the method above
	function getItems() {
		result = [];
		// when included in the array, selecting 0 will reset combobox to default state
		$obj = [];
		$obj["VALUE"] = 0;
		$obj["LABEL"] = "- None -";
		array_push($result, $obj);
		$obj["VALUE"] = 1;
		$obj["LABEL"] = "Item 1";
		array_push($result, $obj);
		$obj["VALUE"] = 2;
		$obj["LABEL"] = "Item 2";
		array_push($result, $obj);

		// ensure the header sent via Ajax is a JSON.
		header("Content-type:application/json");
		echo json_encode($result_array);
	}
?>

To filter the query results, use this GET variable:

term

For a full working code example, check /examples/data.php