Drupal custom form and autocomplete issue - autocomplete

Question

Some how I managed to get it work. But still the result is not coming along with the autocomplete.
Posting my latest code now,
the textfield code
$form['town'] = array(
'#type' => 'textfield',
'#required' => TRUE,
'#autocomplete_path' => 'hfind/town/autocomplete',
);
menu function code
function hfind_menu() {
$items = array();
$items['hfind/town/autocomplete'] = array (
'title' => 'Autocomplete for cities',
'page callback' => 'hfind_town_autocomplete',
'access arguments' => array('use autocomplete'),
'type' => MENU_CALLBACK
);
return $items;
}
the callback function code
function hfind_town_autocomplete($string){
$matches = array();
$result = db_select('towns', 't')
->fields('t', array('town_name'))
->condition('town_name', '%' . db_like($string) . '%', 'LIKE')
->execute();
foreach ($result as $row) {
$matches[$row->city] = check_plain($row->city);
}
drupal_json_output($matches);
}
I hope this may the final edit.
The current situation is, autocomplete is working
The url is hfind/town/autocomplete/mtw
but it is not able to find any data from the database. I found why and unable to fix it.
It is because in the last function I've added above the $string needs to be the 'search query' but it is always querying the database as 'autocomplete'. I mean the $string variable always having the value 'autocomplete' instead of user typed value.
One more problem is, even after providing the permission to all types of user to access search autocomplete on the forms, guests users are not able to use the feature.
Please please someone help me..

Answer 1

`drupal_json_output()` instead of `drupal_to_js` and remove `print` .
<code>
hook_menu() {
$items['cnetusers/autocomplete'] = array(
'title' => 'Auto complete path',
'page callback' => 'cnetusers_employees_autocomplete',
'page arguments' => array(2, 3, 4, 5),
'access arguments' => array('access user profiles'),
'type' => MENU_CALLBACK,
);
return $item;
}
// my autocomplete function is like this
function cnetusers_employees_autocomplete() {
// write your sql query
$matches["$record->ename $record->elname [id: $record->uid]"] = $value;
}
if (empty($matches)) {
$matches[''] = t('No matching records found.');
}
drupal_json_output($matches);
}
$form['disc_info']['approval'] = array(
'#type' => 'textfield',
'#title' => t('Approval By'),
'#autocomplete_path' => 'cnetusers/autocomplete',
);
</code>