Bootstrap Typeahead with AJAX source: not returning array as expected

Question

I am having a lot of trouble getting bootstraps typeahead to work properly with an AJAX source.

If I alert out the array that is being returned it is perfectly fine, even when I hard code it to test it. It seems to return nothing most of the time or only a few items from the array when you have typed in a near match.

Here is what I have at the moment:

$('#companyNameInput').typeahead({
      source: function(query, process){

          $.ajax({
            url: ROOT+'Record/checkCompanyName',
            async: false,
            data: 'q='+query,
            type: 'POST',
            cache: false,
            success: function(data)
            {
              companiesFinal = [];
              map = {};
              companies = $.parseJSON(data);
              $.each(companies, function(i, v){
                map[v.name] = v.id;
                companiesFinal.push(v.name);
              })
            }
          })
          process(companiesFinal);

          // return ['test1', 'test2'] This works fine
          return companiesFinal;
      }

Does anyone have an idea why this is working properly?

---

Here is an example of the object array returned from my PHP script. Objects with IDs 1 and 1216 show up on the typeahead dropdown, but non of the others do. I can not see any patterns or clue as to why only these would show and not the others.

[
   {
      "id": "1265",
      "score": "40",
      "name": "LMV AB"
   },
   {
      "id": "10834",
      "score": "33",
      "name": "Letona"
   },
   {
      "id": "19401",
      "score": "33",
      "name": "Lewmar"
   },
   {
      "id": "7158",
      "score": "33",
      "name": "Lazersan"
   },
   {
      "id": "3364",
      "score": "33",
      "name": "Linpac"
   },
   {
      "id": "1216",
      "score": "33",
      "name": "L H Evans Limted"
   },
   {
      "id": "1",
      "score": "33",
      "name": "LH Evans Ltd"
   },
   {
      "id": "7157",
      "score": "33",
      "name": "Lazersan"
   }
]

And finally the array that is past in process(companiesFinal) :

["LMV AB", "Letona", "Lewmar", "Lazersan", "Linpac", "L H Evans Limted", "LH Evans Ltd", "Lazersan"]

---

Anyone have any clue? I am still totally clueless as to why this isn't working still :(

---

$('#companyNameInput').typeahead({
      source: function(query, process){

        companyTOut = setTimeout(function(){
          return $.ajax({
            url: ROOT+'Record/checkCompanyName',
            data: 'q='+query,
            type: 'POST',
            dataType: 'json',
            cache: false,
            success: function(data)
            {
              var count = 0;
              var companiesFinal = [];
              map = [];
              $.each(data, function(i, v){
                map[v.name] = [v.id, v.score];
                companiesFinal.push(v.name);
              })
              process(companiesFinal);

            }
          })
        }, 250)
      },
      minLength: 2,
      highlighter: function(item)
      {
        $('#companyNameInput').closest('.control-group').removeClass('success')
        companyLocked = false;
        return '<span class="unselectable" title="'+map[item].score+'">'+item+'</span>';
      },
      updater: function(item)
      {
        selectedEntityId = map[item][0];
        selectedCountryScore = map[item][1];
        lockCompany(selectedEntityId);
        return item;
      }
    });

---

$output .= '['.$output;
    foreach($results as $result) {
      $output .= '{"id":"'.$result['id'].'",';
      $output .= '"score":"'.$result['score'].'",';
      $output .= '"name":'.json_encode($result['name']).'},';
    }
    header('Content-Type: application/json');
    echo substr($output, 0, strlen($output)-1).']';

---

Console output for "parm":

[Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object]
0: Object
id: "25024"
name: "part"
score: "75"
__proto__: Object
1: Object
id: "15693"
name: "pari"
score: "75"
__proto__: Object
2: Object
id: "28079"
name: "Pato"
score: "50"
__proto__: Object
3: Object
id: "18001"
name: "PASS"
score: "50"
__proto__: Object
4: Object
id: "15095"
name: "PSR"
score: "33"
__proto__: Object
5: Object
id: "22662"
name: "PRP"
score: "33"
__proto__: Object
length: 6
__proto__: Array[0]

Answer 1

Update 2

Ah, your service returns items that actually don't match the query parm . Your typeahead query is 'parm' , with which none of the returned results match. You can override the matcher function used by the typeahead plugin, see the docs . Simply implement it as return true to match all results returned by your service.

Update 1

This is an updated version, that maps the name to an id, which can be used later. A jsfiddle is available .

var nameIdMap = {};

$('#lookup').typeahead({
    source: function (query, process) {
        return $.ajax({
            dataType: "json",
            url: lookupUrl,
            data: getAjaxRequestData(),
            type: 'POST',
            success: function (json) {
                process(getOptionsFromJson(json));
            }
        });
    },
    minLength: 1,
    updater: function (item) {
        console.log('selected id'+nameIdMap[item]);
        return item;
    }
});

function getOptionsFromJson(json) {
    $.each(json, function (i, v) {
        nameIdMap[v.name] = v.id;
    });

    return $.map(json, function (n, i) {
        return n.name;
    });
}

Original answer

You need to make the call async and call the process callback from within the success callback like this:

$('#companyNameInput').typeahead({
    source: function (query, process) {
        $.ajax({
            url: ROOT + 'Record/checkCompanyName',
            // async: false, // better go async
            data: 'q=' + query,
            type: 'POST',
            cache: false,
            success: function (data) {
                var companiesFinal = ... // snip
                process(companiesFinal);
            }
        })
    }
});

The return ['test1', 'test2']; works, because the source function is then basically set to:

// do ajax stuff, but do nothing with the result
// return the typeahead array, which the typeahead will accept as the result:
return ['test1', 'test2'];

Notes

There is a one-liner to fill companiesData :

var companiesFinal = return $.map(data, function (n, i) { n.name; });

And you probably want to declare your variables using var ; otherwise they'll have global scope, which will bite you.