drupal adding a user reference field to a template - php

Question

I have a template file that I want to print a the cck user reference form field on.
Is this possible? Note, this is not the field value, but the field form. Also asking for just the field, not creating a form first and then using drupal_get_form()
Thanks!
Edit: If this is not possible that's fine too, I just would like to know
Edit2: i just need the autocomplete mechanism so I can grab the uid in js from searching for the username

Answer 1

If you just need autocomplete mechanism I would suject you to use jQuery autocomplete plugin - http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/autocomplete.
you can just output in the template something like that:
print '<input type="text" id="user-autocomplete">';
Then in javascript code
$(document).ready('function(){
$('#user-autocomplete').autocomplete(some-ajax-url-here)
}');
you also will need to create an ajax callback page somewhere in your module:
function YOUR_MODULE_NAME_menu(){
$items = array();
$items['user-autocomplete-ajax-page'] = array(
'title' => 'AJAX:get user',
'page callback' => 'get_user'
);
}
function get_user(){
$sql = 'SELECT uid, name FROM {users} WHERE name LIKE ("%s")';
$result = db_query($sql,$_GET['request']);
$res_str = '';
while($object = db_fetch_object($result)){
$res_str .= $object->name.' ['.$object->uid."]\n";
}
print $res_str;
}
I didn't test the code, but I guess it should work, may be with some minor changes.