jQuery autocomplete styling on only certain results - ajax

Question

Is it possible to add styling to only some of the results returned in an autocomplete dropdown?
The code below works fine, however, I would like to style the individual results based on the value of data[x].restricted. When it is true, I still want to display those items but disable or grey them out within the autocomplete dropdown list. If data[x].restricted is false then I do not want to apply any additional styling to those items.
source: function (request, response) {
$.ajax({
url: $("#AutoCompleteCustomerNameUrl").val(),
type: "POST",
dataType: "json",
data: {
srchCus: request.term
},
success: function (data) {
var x, array = [];
for (x in data) {
array.push({
label: (data[x].restricted ? 'Restricted Access - ' : '') + data[x].customerName,
name: data[x].customerFullName
});
}
}
});
}
Any assistance on how to accomplish this would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Approach 1 (feels hacky)
This doesn't feel like a great option, but you could probably do this by using jQuery to target elements based on their text content. Autocomplete suggestions are generated as <li>s, so something like this might work:
$('li:contains("Restricted Access")').addClass('grey');
The question is then when to run that? Those elements are added dynamically of course, after page load, so that would have to run after they've been created - you'd have to run it based on some autocomplete event. Looking through the list in the docs, maybe the open event would be best. A handler for that event will run whenever the menu is opened, so it could add a CSS class to all the just-created suggestions matching that selector. Eg (untested):
$("#selector").autocomplete({
// ... your normal autocomplete code ...
open: function(event, ui) {
// Add a CSS class to those suggestions matching the text
$('li:contains("Restricted Access")').addClass('grey');
}
});
I haven't tested this, as it doesn't feel like the right approach. Below is a much better, tested and working option.
Approach 2 (feels good)
You can also do this using the _renderItem extension point. If you check the example they give there you can see it is the function which actually generates the HTML which shows up as your autocomplete suggestion. If we can customise that, we could do anything - eg check details of the item, add specific CSS classes, etc.
I don't find those docs super clear, but it isn't hard to find examples of it in use, eg the Custom Data example (that #Simon-K linked to in the comments above) shows how to use it:
$("#selector").autocomplete({
// ... your normal autocomplete code ...
}).autocomplete("instance")._renderItem = function(ul, item) {
// Here we have complete control of what is returned, and access to
// the items!
return $("<li>").append("<div>" + item.label ...).appendTo(ul);
};
So with your requirements, we could do something like this:
$("#selector").autocomplete({
// ... your normal autocomplete code ...
}).autocomplete("instance")._renderItem = function(ul, item) {
var style = (item.restricted) ? 'grey' : '';
return $("<li>")
.append("<div class='" + style + "'>" + item.label + "</div>")
.appendTo(ul);
};
And then of course add a CSS class to style those items:
.grey {
color: #ccc;
}
Working JSFiddle.