How to patch *just one* instance of Autocomplete on a page? - jquery-ui

Question

This answer -- jQueryUI: how can I custom-format the Autocomplete plug-in results? -- describes how to monkeypatch the jqueryUI autocomplete widget, so that it displays things in a particular way. The approach it uses is to replace a function on the $.ui.autocomplete.prototype.
This means that all autocomplete widgets will get this patch.
Is there a way to patch the autocomplete widget for just one input element?
What is it?
When I examine $('$input').autocomplete , I don't see any of the autocomplete fns there (_renderItem, _renderMenu, _search, etc).

Answer 1

Check out the custom data and display demo. This demo is not modifying the prototype object of the autocomplete widget, meaning that only that instance of the widget is effected:
$("selector").autocomplete({ ... }).data( "autocomplete" )._renderItem = function( ul, item ) {
return $( "<li></li>" )
.data( "item.autocomplete", item )
.append( "<a>" + item.label + "<br>" + item.desc + "</a>" )
.appendTo( ul );
};
Here's a working demo: http://jsfiddle.net/vJSwq/

Answer 2

The code from Andrew Whitaker just work for one autocomplete input. If you select more than one input-element, the second autocomplete widget dosn't show any entrys.
You have to add a foreach to handel all selected input elements like mentioned here
$("selector")
.autocomplete({ ... })
.each(function () {
$(this).data("autocomplete")._renderItem = function( ul, item ) {
return $("<li></li>")
.data("item.autocomplete", item)
.append("<a>" + item.label + "<br>" + item.desc + "</a>")
.appendTo(ul);
};
);

Answer 3

For recent versions of jQuery(1.8+) / jQuery UI (1.10+), you should use:
$("selector").autocomplete({ ... }).data('uiAutocomplete')._renderItem = function( ul, item ) {
return $( "<li></li>" )
.data( "item.autocomplete", item )
.append( "<a>" + item.label + "<br>" + item.desc + "</a>" )
.appendTo( ul );
};