jquery autocomplete renderItem - jquery-ui

Question

I have the following code. It generates no js errors. Can't get the autocomplete to display any results:
$(function() {
$.ajax({
url: "data.xml",
dataType: "xml",
cache: false,
success: function (xmlResponse) {
var data_results = $("Entry", xmlResponse).map(function () {
return {
var1: $.trim($("Partno", this).text()),
var2: $.trim($("Description", this).text()),
var3: $.trim($("SapCode", this).text()),
var4: $("Title", this).text(),
var5: $.trim($("File", this).text()),
var6: $.trim($("ItemID", this).text())
};
}).get();
$("#searchresults").autocomplete({
source: data_results,
minLength: 3,
select: function (event, ui) {
...
}
}).data( "autocomplete" )._renderItem = function( ul, item ) {
return $( "<li></li>" ).data("item.autocomplete", item)
.append( "<a>" + item.var1 + "<br>" + item.var2 + "</a>")
.appendTo( ul );
};
}
});
Any ideas what I might be missing? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It seems that .data('autocomplete') is now .data('ui-autocomplete').
Source: http://jqueryui.com/upgrade-guide/1.10/#removed-data-fallbacks-for-widget-names

Answer 2

By default, autocomplete expects your source array to contain objects with either a label property, a value property, or both.
With that in mind you have two options:
Add a label or value property to your source objects when you process the array from your AJAX call:
var data_results = $("Entry", xmlResponse).map(function () {
return {
var1: $.trim($("Partno", this).text()),
var2: $.trim($("Description", this).text()),
var3: $.trim($("SapCode", this).text()),
var4: $("Title", this).text(),
var5: $.trim($("File", this).text()),
var6: $.trim($("ItemID", this).text()),
value: $.trim($("Description", this).text())
};
}).get();
The value you assign will be used on focus, select, and to search on.
Change the source function to perform custom filtering logic:
$("#searchresults").autocomplete({
source: function (request, response) {
var matcher = new RegExp($.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(request.term), "i");
response($.grep(data, function (value) {
return matcher.test(value.var1) ||
matcher.test(value.var2);
/* etc., continue with whatever parts of the object you want */
}));
},
minLength: 3,
select: function (event, ui) {
event.preventDefault();
this.value = ui.var1 + ui.var2;
},
focus: function (event, ui) {
event.preventDefault();
this.value = ui.var1 + ui.var2;
}
}).data( "autocomplete" )._renderItem = function( ul, item ) {
return $( "<li></li>" ).data("item.autocomplete", item)
.append( "<a>" + item.var1 + "<br>" + item.var2 + "</a>")
.appendTo( ul );
};
Note that with this strategy you have to implement custom select and focus logic.