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

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 th

Answer 1

For recent versions of jQuery(1.8+) / jQuery UI (1.10+), you should use:

$("selector").autocomplete({ ... }).data('uiAutocomplete')._renderItem = function( ul, item ) {
    return $( "
" )
        .data( "item.autocomplete", item )
        .append( "" + item.label + "
" + item.desc + "" )
    .appendTo( ul );
};