JQuery Autocomplete with Geonames and MYSQL - php

Question

I trying to create a multifunctional search bar, where one can not only look for cities (using Geonames) but also using the same input field for finding signed up users (using my MYSQL table.
I managed to achieve both seperately, however I couldn't manage to merge the code together.
The JQuery code for the geoname autocomplete:
$(function() {
$( "#top_search_field" ).autocomplete({
source: function( request, response ) {
$.ajax({
url: "http://api.geonames.org/searchJSON?username=dummie",
dataType: "jsonp",
data: {
featureClass: "P",
style: "full",
country: "AT",
maxRows: 12,
name_startsWith: request.term
},
success: function( data ) {
response( $.map( data.geonames, function( item ) {
return {
label: item.name + (item.adminName1 ? ", " + item.adminName1 : "") + ", " + item.countryName,
value: item.name
}
}));
}
});
},
minLength: 2,
select: function (event, ui) {
var selectedObj = ui.item;
jQuery("#top_search_field").val(selectedObj.value);
return false;
},
open: function () {
jQuery(this).removeClass("ui-corner-all").addClass("ui-corner-top");
},
close: function () {
jQuery(this).removeClass("ui-corner-top").addClass("ui-corner-all");
}
});
});
The code for grabbing the users from the table:
$(function() {
$( "#top_search_field" ).autocomplete({
source:'php_includes/search.php',
minLength: 2,
open: function () {
jQuery(this).removeClass("ui-corner-all").addClass("ui-corner-top");
},
close: function () {
jQuery(this).removeClass("ui-corner-top").addClass("ui-corner-all");
}
})
});
search.php
include_once("db_connect.php");
$stmt = $db_connect->query("SELECT user_auth, first_name, last_name, avatar FROM users WHERE (first_name LIKE '%".$_REQUEST['term']."%' OR last_name LIKE '%".$_REQUEST['term']."%') ");
while($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
$results[] = array('label' => utf8_encode($row['first_name'].' '. $row['last_name'] ) );
}
echo json_encode($results);
What is the best way to merge the codes together and make it possible to look for both cities and users?

Answer 1

You need to do a service for getting information from multiple service, combine them and respond to your autocomplete result. Let say you have a service called advanced_search.php. In this file;
<?php
$keyword = $_GET["keyword"];
$result = array();
$usersReturnedFromService = getUsersFromService($keyword); // Get users from service by using curl
foreach ($usersReturnedFrom as $user) {
array_push(array("type" => "user", "value" => $user));
}
$geoNamesReturnedFromService = getGeoNamesFromService($keyword); // Get geonames from service by using curl
foreach ($geoNamesReturnedFromService as $geoname) {
array_push(array("type" => "geoname", "value" => $geoname));
}
// When you sort, result will mixed
function compareArr($a, $b){
$ad = strtotime($a['value']);
$bd = strtotime($b['value']);
return ($ad-$bd);
}
usort($result, 'compareArr');
echo json_encode($result);
And in js side;
$(function() {
$( "#top_search_field" ).autocomplete({
source: function( request, response ) {
$.ajax({
url: "advanced_search.php?keyword=" + request.term, // put other variables here. I have only put term
success: function( data ) {
response( $.map( data, function( item ) {
return {
label: item.value, // john
value: item.type + "|" + item.value // user|john
}
}));
}
});
},
minLength: 2,
select: function (event, ui) {
var selectedObj = ui.item;
jQuery("#top_search_field").val(selectedObj.value);
return false;
},
open: function () {
jQuery(this).removeClass("ui-corner-all").addClass("ui-corner-top");
},
close: function () {
jQuery(this).removeClass("ui-corner-top").addClass("ui-corner-all");
}
});
});