jqueryui autocomplete render HTML returned by server - ajax

Question

I have a simple page with an input text-box. The text box is bound to jquery ui autocomplete that makes an AJAX call to the server. My server side code is an ASP.NET MVC site. The only difference I have as compared to most examples found over the Internet is that my Server side code returns a PartialView (html code) as results instead of JSON. I see the AJAX call happening and I see the HTML response in the AJAX success event as well.
My question is how do I bind this HTML data to show in the AutoComplete?
The code I have so far is:
$("#quick_search_text").autocomplete({
minLength: 3,
html: true,
autoFocus: true,
source: function (request, response) {
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "serversideurl",
data: "{ 'SearchTerm': '" + request.term + "', 'SearchCategory': '" + $("#quick_search_category").val() + "' }",
contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
dataType: "html",
error: function (jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
console.log(jqXHR);
},
success: function (data) {
//THIS IS WHERE MY HTML IS RETURNED FROM SERVER SIDE
//HOW DO I BIND THIS TO JQUERY UI AUTOCOMPLETE
}
});
},
select: function (event, ui) {
},
response: function (event, ui) {
console.log(ui);
console.log(event);
}
});

Answer 1

This works:
1) Create an action in your controller and set the RouteConfig to start this action
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index20()
{
MyViewModel m = new MyViewModel();
return View(m);
}
Create a view without any type of master page
Add this view model:
public class MyViewModel
{
public string SourceCaseNumber { get; set; }
}
Go to Manage Nuget Packages or PM Console and add to MVC 5 project - Typeahead.js for MVC 5 Models by Tim Wilson
Change the namespace for the added HtmlHelpers.cs to System.Web.Mvc.Html and rebuild
Add this class:
public class CasesNorm
{
public string SCN { get; set; }
}
Add these methods to your controller:
private List<Autocomplete> _AutocompleteSourceCaseNumber(string query)
{
List<Autocomplete> sourceCaseNumbers = new List<Autocomplete>();
try
{
//You will goto your Database for CasesNorm, but if will doit shorthand here
//var results = db.CasesNorms.Where(p => p.SourceCaseNumber.Contains(query)).
// GroupBy(item => new { SCN = item.SourceCaseNumber }).
// Select(group => new { SCN = group.Key.SCN }).
// OrderBy(item => item.SCN).
// Take(10).ToList(); //take 10 is important
CasesNorm c1 = new CasesNorm { SCN = "11111111"};
CasesNorm c2 = new CasesNorm { SCN = "22222222"};
IList<CasesNorm> aList = new List<CasesNorm>();
aList.Add(c1);
aList.Add(c2);
var results = aList;
foreach (var r in results)
{
// create objects
Autocomplete sourceCaseNumber = new Autocomplete();
sourceCaseNumber.Name = string.Format("{0}", r.SCN);
sourceCaseNumber.Id = Int32.Parse(r.SCN);
sourceCaseNumbers.Add(sourceCaseNumber);
}
}
catch (EntityCommandExecutionException eceex)
{
if (eceex.InnerException != null)
{
throw eceex.InnerException;
}
throw;
}
catch
{
throw;
}
return sourceCaseNumbers;
}
public ActionResult AutocompleteSourceCaseNumber(string query)
{
return Json(_AutocompleteSourceCaseNumber(query), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
credit goes to http://timdwilson.github.io/typeahead-mvc-model/