How can I clean this code up better? - magento

Question

I have a script inserted into Magento and it does not seem to be behaving properly. Whenever it runs it actually feeds the contents of the html document back into the text box rather than the autosuggestion. Can anyone tell me what the issue seems to be? I think it might be the two functions conflicting, is there a good way to clean this up?
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-2.1.1.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.autocomplete.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" >
//<![CDATA[
$j = jQuery.noConflict();
$j(document).ready(function(){
$j("#antique_toys_materials").keyup
(function()
{
var tag= $j(this).val();
if(tag!='')
{
$j.ajax(
{
type: "GET",
url: "autocomplete.php",
data: "q=" + tag,
cache: true,
success: function(result)
{
$j("#antique_toys_materials").val(result);
}
}
);
}
return false;
}
);
}
);
//]]>
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" >
//<![CDATA[
$j = jQuery.noConflict();
$j(window).load(function(){
function calculate()
{
var values = [
$j("#cost").val(),
$j("#shipping_paid").val(),
$j("#tax_paid").val()
];
var percent_value = $j("#our_markup").val();
//---------------------------//
if (percent_value == 285)
{
var percent_value = 0;
}
var sub_total = eval( values.join('+') );
var total = eval("sub_total+(sub_total * percent_value)");
var shortened_total = total.toFixed(2);
$j("#price").val(shortened_total);
}
$j( document ).ready(function() {
$j(document).on('input', 'input', calculate);
$j(document).on('change', 'select,input', calculate);
});
});
//]]>
</script>
and it hooks up with this
<?php
$q=$_GET['q'];
$my_data=mysql_real_escape_string($q);
$mysqli=mysqli_connect('localhost','XXXXXXX','XXXXXXX','XXXXXXX') or die("Database Error");
$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT auto_complete_suggestions FROM auto_complete WHERE auto_complete_suggestions LIKE '%$my_data%'
ORDER BY CASE WHEN auto_complete_suggestions = '$mydata' THEN 0
WHEN auto_complete_suggestions LIKE '$mydata%' THEN 1
WHEN auto_complete_suggestions LIKE '%$mydata%' THEN 2
WHEN auto_complete_suggestions LIKE '%$mydata' THEN 3
ELSE 4
END, auto_complete_suggestions LIMIT 0,1";
$result = mysqli_query($mysqli,$sql) or die(mysqli_error());
if($result)
{
while($row=mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
echo $row['auto_complete_suggestions']."\n";
}
}
?>
It works fine in isolation without the noConflict but then when I put it in Magento it seems to need some help and I'm sure that since it's feeding the html file back into it that something's wrong.
Thoughts? Thanks!

Answer 1

This is just a quick guess, but try using the word "jQuery" instead of "$". I had to change a few plugin scripts that interfered with prototype since it too uses the "$". Once I replaced all instanced of $ with the word jQuery, things started working as I expected.