jQuery UI autocomplete show results before search

Question

I want in my project to show some first results before I focus autocomplete input. Those results should work the same way as results of autocomplete ajax request.

Can I do this by standart options of autocomplete or I should write equal javascript code?

Answer 1

You should set the minLength option to 0. If you want results to appear as soon as the field is focused into, you could write a simple event handler to accomplish that:

$("input").autocomplete({
    source: /* source */,
    minLength: 0
}).on("focus", function () {
    $(this).autocomplete("search", '');
});

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/mLSjL/

Edit: If you want to show the suggestion list immediately, try showing it on the create event of the autocomplete widget:

$("input").autocomplete({
    source: /* source */,
    minLength: 0,
    create: function () {
        $(this).autocomplete("search", '');
    }
});

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/CVUWV/