jQuery UI autocomplete- no results message

Question

I\'m trying to have a \"No Results\" message appear in the dropdown menu if there are no results. So for instance, if I type in \"ABCD\" into the text field, and there is n

Answer 1

My answer is almost identical to @neelmeg and @Trever, but I have added an extra check, so user won't be able to select the "no result" message:

$(".my-textbox").autocomplete({
    minLength: 2,
    open: function () { $('.ui-autocomplete').css('z-index', 50); },
    source: function (request, response) {
        $.ajax({
            url: "/some-url",
            type: "POST",
            dataType: "json",
            data: { prefix: request.term, __RequestVerificationToken: token },
            success: function (data) {
                if (!data.length) {
                    var result = [{ label: "no results", value: response.term }];
                    response(result);
                }
                else {
                    response($.map(data, function (item) {
                        return { label: item.someLabel, value: item.someValue };
                    }))
                }
            }
        })
    },
    select: function (event, ui) {
        var label = ui.item.label;
            if (label === "no results") {
            // this prevents "no results" from being selected
            event.preventDefault();
        }
        else {
            /* do something with the selected result */
            var url = "some-url"
            window.location.href = url;
        }
    }
});