Get ID but display Name - php

Question

I have an autocomplete field in my form that lets me select a contact name and associate it with a listing.
On the edit page however, it will display the contact ID and not his firstname and lastname.
How can I do that?
This is getEdit() method in ListingsController.php
public function getEdit($id)
{
// get the nerd
$listings = Listing::find($id);
$listings->images = Image::where('listing_id', $id)->get();
$ImagesFileName = "";
$listings->imagesFiles = "";
if ($listings->images) {
foreach ($listings->images as $CurImage) {
$ImagesFileName[] = $CurImage['image_name'];
}
$listings->imagesFiles = implode(",", $ImagesFileName) ;
}
$query = DB::table('contacts')->get();
foreach ($query as $firstname)
{
$name[] = $firstname->firstname." ".$firstname->lastname;
}
$fullname = json_encode($name);
// show the edit form and pass the nerd
$this->layout->content = View::make('listings/edit')
->with('listings', $listings)
->with('getClientsByLetters', $fullname);
}
This is action_getClientsByLetters() in ListingsController.php
public function action_getClientsByLetters() {
$term = Input::get('query');
$data = array();
$query = DB::query("
SELECT * FROM contacts
WHERE MATCH (contact)
AGAINST('+".$term."*' IN BOOLEAN MODE)
");
foreach ($query as $results => $contact) {
$data[] = array(
'id' => $contact->id,
'value' => $contact->firstname
);
}
return json_encode($data);
}
This is the field in views/listings/edit.blade.php
<p>{{ Form::text('contact_id', null, array('class'=>'form-control', 'placeholder'=>'Contact Name', 'id'=>'contact', 'onblur'=>'test()')) }}</p>
And this is the javascript code on the same view
$(function() {
var availableTags = <?php echo $getClientsByLetters; ?>;
$( "#contact" ).autocomplete({
source: availableTags,
minLength: 2,
});
});

Answer 1

I think this is just a problem of approach. Normally I would just set up this kind of field as a SELECT control, using the ID as the key field and the name as the displayed option values. In all modern browsers you get progressive autocomplete on SELECT controls by default. One important question, however, is whether you are intending users to be able to add arbitrary new names to this field, or if it is intended to only allow existing names with assigned IDs to be entered. In the latter case then yes, we probably need to figure out how to get your autocomplete text field to work instead.

Answer 2

Your action_getClientsByLetters looks close, but I don't think it's ever being run.
Autocomplete is accepting an array of strings or an array of objects where each object has both a label and a value, which I think is what you should be aiming for.
With that in mind, I'd add a function whose sole responsibility is to fetch the contacts and put them in the required form that autocomplete is expecting, which you would probably be using the array of objects because it looks like your going to need the ID later.
function getContacts()
{
$contacts = Contact::all();
$autoComplete = array();
foreach($contacts as $contact) {
$autoComplete[]['label'] = $contact->first_name . ' ' . $contact->last_name;
$autoComplete[]['value'] = $contact->id;
}
return json_encode($autoComplete);
}
Then you'd call the view with...
$this->layout->content = View::make('listings/edit')
->with('listings', $listings)
->with('getClientsByLetters', $this->getContacts());