Facebook Style AJAX Search

Question

I\'ve created a Facebook style ajax search for my site where as you type it will bring up the results in a nice list below your search.

$(\"#s\").keyup(funct         


        

Answer 1

the method you are referring to is called "Debouncing"

I usually have a "Debounce" function at the bottom of all my scripts

var debounce=function(func, threshold, execAsap) {
    var timeout;
    return function debounced () {
        var obj = this, args = arguments;
        function delayed () {
            if (!execAsap)
                func.apply(obj, args);
            timeout = null; 
        };
        if (timeout)
            clearTimeout(timeout);
        else if (execAsap)
            func.apply(obj, args);
        timeout = setTimeout(delayed, threshold || 100); 
    }; 
};

And then whenever I do anything that will benefit from a debounce I can use it generically

So your code would be re-written as

$("#s").keyup(debounce(function() {
    var searchbox = $(this).val();
    var dataString = 's='+ searchbox;
    if(searchbox!='') {
        $.ajax({
                type: "POST",
                url: "/livesearch.php",
                data: dataString,
                cache: false,
                success: function(html){
                        $("#display").html(html).show();
                }
        });
    } else {return false; }  
}
,350 /*determines the delay in ms*/
,false /*should it execute on first keyup event, 
       or delay the first event until 
       the value in ms specified above*/
));