Autocomplete combobox widget force change - jquery-ui

Question

I'm getting absolutely no where in getting the underlying select to fire a changed event after a autocomplete value is selected.
How can I force a change within the widget. From what I can find I need to
trigger a select event and trigger a change with something like this, but I can't get it to work
select: function(event,ui) {
this.value=ui.item.value;
$(this).trigger('change');
return false; }
(function( $ ) {
$.widget("st.comboboxAutocomplete", {
options: {
minLength: 0,
showDropdown: false,
width: '',
Id: '',
},
_create: function () {
this.wrapper = $("<span>")
.addClass("st-comboboxAutocomplete")
.css({ 'padding': '0px 0px', 'width': this.options.width})
.insertAfter(this.element);
this.element.hide();
this._createAutocomplete();
if (this.options.showDropdown)
{
this._createShowAllButton();
}
},
_createAutocomplete: function () {
var selected = this.element.children(":selected"),
value = selected.val() ? selected.text() : "";
this.input = $("<input>")
.appendTo(this.wrapper)
.val(value)
.attr("title", "")
.attr("id", this.options.Id)
.addClass("st-comboboxAutocomplete-input")
.css('margin-right', '5px')
.autocomplete({
delay: 0,
minLength: this.options.minLength,
source: $.proxy(this, "_source"),
});
this._on(this.input, {
autocompleteselect: function (event, ui) {
ui.item.option.selected = true;
this._trigger("select", event, {
item: ui.item.option
});
},
autocompletechange: "_removeIfInvalid"
});
},
_createShowAllButton: function () {
var input = this.input,
wasOpen = false;
$("<a>")
.attr("tabIndex", -1)
.attr("title", "Show All Items")
.tooltip()
.css('background-color', '#fff')
.appendTo(this.wrapper)
.button({
icons: {
primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s"
},
text: false
})
.removeClass("ui-corner-all")
.addClass("st-comboboxAutocomplete-toggle ui-corner-right")
.on("mousedown", function () {
wasOpen = input.autocomplete("widget").is(":visible");
})
.on("click", function () {
input.trigger("focus");
// Close if already visible
if (wasOpen) {
return;
}
// Pass empty string as value to search for, displaying all results
input.autocomplete("search", "");
});
},
_source: function (request, response) {
var matcher = new RegExp($.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(request.term), "i");
response(this.element.children("option").map(function () {
var text = $(this).text();
if (this.value && (!request.term || matcher.test(text)))
return {
label: text,
value: text,
option: this
};
}));
},
_removeIfInvalid: function (event, ui) {
// Selected an item, nothing to do
if (ui.item) {
return;
}
// Search for a match (case-insensitive)
var value = this.input.val(),
valueLowerCase = value.toLowerCase(),
valid = false;
this.element.children("option").each(function () {
if ($(this).text().toLowerCase() === valueLowerCase) {
this.selected = valid = true;
return false;
}
});
// Found a match, nothing to do
if (valid) {
return;
}
// Remove invalid value
this.input
.val("")
.attr("title", value + " didn't match any item")
.tooltip("open");
this.element.val("");
this._delay(function () {
this.input.tooltip("close").attr("title", "");
}, 2500);
this.input.autocomplete("instance").term = "";
},
_destroy: function () {
this.wrapper.remove();
this.element.show();
}
});
})( jQuery );
$(function() {
$( "#combobox" ).comboboxAutocomplete();
$("#combobox").change(function() {
alert(this.value);
});
});
.ui-button { margin-left: -1px; }
.ui-button-icon-only .ui-button-text { padding: 0.35em; }
.ui-autocomplete-input { margin: 0; padding: 0.48em 0 0.47em 0.45em; }
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.12.1/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<div class="demo">
<div class="ui-widget">
<label>Your preferred programming language: </label>
<select id="combobox">
<option value="">Select one...</option>
<option value="ActionScript">ActionScript</option>
<option value="AppleScript">AppleScript</option>
<option value="Asp">Asp</option>
<option value="BASIC">BASIC</option>
<option value="C">C</option>
<option value="C++">C++</option>
<option value="Clojure">Clojure</option>
<option value="COBOL">COBOL</option>
<option value="ColdFusion">ColdFusion</option>
<option value="Erlang">Erlang</option>
<option value="Fortran">Fortran</option>
<option value="Groovy">Groovy</option>
<option value="Haskell">Haskell</option>
<option value="Java">Java</option>
<option value="JavaScript">JavaScript</option>
<option value="Lisp">Lisp</option>
<option value="Perl">Perl</option>
<option value="PHP">PHP</option>
<option value="Python">Python</option>
<option value="Ruby">Ruby</option>
<option value="Scala">Scala</option>
<option value="Scheme">Scheme</option>
</select>
</div>
<button id="toggle">Show underlying select</button>
</div><!-- End demo -->
<div class="demo-description">
<p>A custom widget built by composition of Autocomplete and Button. You can either type something into the field to get filtered suggestions based on your input, or use the button to get the full list of selections.</p>
<p>The input is read from an existing select-element for progressive enhancement, passed to Autocomplete with a customized source-option.</p>
</div><!-- End demo-description -->

Answer 1

In case inquiring minds want to know, I solved this with the following
_createAutocomplete: function () {
var selected = this.element.children(":selected"),
value = selected.val() ? selected.text() : "";
this.input = $("<input>")
.appendTo(this.wrapper)
.val(value)
.attr("title", "")
.attr("id", this.options.Id)
.addClass("st-comboboxAutocomplete-input")
.css('margin-right', '5px')
.autocomplete({
delay: 0,
minLength: this.options.minLength,
source: $.proxy(this, "_source"),
change: $.proxy(this, "_change")
});
this._on(this.input, {
autocompleteselect: function (event, ui) {
ui.item.option.selected = true;
this._trigger("select", event, {
item: ui.item.option
});
},
autocompletechange: "_removeIfInvalid"
});
}
_change: function (event, ui) {
this.value = ui.item.value;
this.element.trigger('change');
return false;
}
This will fire a change when you tab or exit the autocomplete. If you want it to fire the change on select then use
select: $.proxy(this, "_select")
_select: function (event, ui) {
this.element.trigger('change');
},