Yii CJuiAutoComplete data from Ajax request - autocomplete

Question

I have a task form for an application I am building which allows me to specify what contact it is assigned to. I had set up a dependent dropdown in Yii with the following code:
echo $form->dropDownList($model,'associationType',
array('none'=>'None','contact'=>'Contact','sale'=>'Sale','account'=>'Account',
'project'=>'Project','case'=>'Case'),
array(
'ajax' => array(
'type'=>'POST', //request type
'url'=>CController::createUrl('tasks/parseType'), //url to call.
//Style: CController::createUrl('currentController/methodToCall')
'update'=>'#auto_complete', //selector to update
)
));
What I'm trying to do is use the CJuiAutoComplete widget with the dropDown specifying which array to grab. So the drop down is selected to contacts, it should get a list of contacts etc.
Here is what I have for the CJui widget
$this->widget('zii.widgets.jui.CJuiAutoComplete', array(
'name'=>'auto_select',
'source' => $names,
'options'=>array(
'minLength'=>'2',
'select'=>'js:function( event, ui ) {
$("#'.CHtml::activeId($model,'associationId').'").val(ui.item.id);
return false;
}',
),
));
The variable $names is just a placeholder for now, but in my controller method I pass it a JSON encoded array with id and name. Controller code:
public function actionParseType() {
//if(isset($_POST['TaskChild']['associationType'])){
//$type=$_POST['TaskChild']['associationType'];
$type='sale';
$sql = 'SELECT id, name FROM x2_'.$type.'s';
$cmd = Yii::app()->db->createCommand($sql);
$res = $cmd->queryAll();
echo CJSON::encode($res);
//}
}
Right now I'm forcing it to use "Sale" but I don't get anything when I call the method, and was wondering how I might go about fixing this. I'm still a little new to Yii so I've been mostly reading wiki/forum posts on how these kinds of thing are done. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

Try something like this in your controller action:
$sql = 'SELECT people_id as id, CONCAT(first_name," ",last_name) as value, first_name as label FROM people WHERE first_name LIKE :qterm ORDER BY first_name ASC';
$command = Yii::app()->db->createCommand($sql);
$qterm = $_GET['term'].'%';
$command->bindParam(":qterm", $qterm, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$result = $command->queryAll();
echo CJSON::encode($result); exit;
Then you can check it by using this in your widget 'options' array: 'select'=>'js:function(event, ui) { console.log(ui.item.id +":"+ui.item.value); }'