get result with jquery ajax from autocomplete - php

Question

I'm using jQuery autocomplete and want to retrieve data from php file called some.php, in which is only written
<?php
echo "Hello World";
?>
and here is javascript
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function(){
$("#key").autocomplete({
source: function(){
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "./some.php",
data: {key: $("#key").val()},
success: function(result){
// what code is needed here to be placed
}
});
}
});
});
</script>
and html by the way =>
<input type="text" name="key" id="key">
I think script is written correctly , because when I'm writing in success function alert(result) it gets "Hello world", but I want it to be in drop down box , how can fix this problem , please help me , thanks :)

Answer 1

$("#key").autocomplete({
source: function(request, response){
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "./some.php",
data: {key: request.term},
success: function(result){
response(result);
}
});
}
});
response(result) will display the autocomplete menu -- result should be an array of items (where each item is a string or an object with value or label keys).
As SJ GJ mentioned, you can simply set source: "./some.php" but then some.php needs to be modified to accept the request parameter term and return a json array of items.

Answer 2

try this:
JS:
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function(){
$("#key").autocomplete({
source: "./some.php"
});
});
</script>
PHP:
$result = array('1' => 'Hello World');
echo json_encode($result);