Implementing auto complete for more than one field in Rails

Hi,

I have an app, which implements a group feature. Each group has n members. Also, each group has a group specific profile pic to it.

I have been able to implement auto complete for the group feature keeping in mind the group name alone. I have referred to the following tutorial for the same:- http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=23188

I am using **ruby 1.8.7** and **rails 2.0.2** for project specific purpose. I have installed the auto_complete plugin in the appropriate directory. I am on **Ubuntu 10.04** OS

I would like to integrate two more things as part of the current auto complete feature for groups

1> When I type in a group name in the auto complete text field I should be able to also see an appropriate group specific profile picture which show up based on the entered text.

2> I should also be able to see the number of members that would show up corresponding to each group, based on the entered text in the auto complete text field.

I am facing the following hurdles going about the same:

Currently the code that I have implemented to get basic auto complete works based on group name looks like this:-

in **groups_controller.rb**

    auto_complete_for :investor_group, :title

in **index.html.erb** of **groups**

    <%=stylesheet_link_tag "groups"%>     <%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %>

    Search for a investor group: <%= text_field_with_auto_complete :investor_group, :title, {}, {:method => :get} %><%=submit_tag "Search"%>

in **`config/routes.rb`**

    map.resources :investor_group, :collection => {:auto_complete_for_investor_groups_title => :get }

I am able to currently display an image for a particular group and retrieve the total number of members belonging to a group by making use of the following code in **index.html.erb** of groups:-

    <%for inv_group in @investor_groups%>     <div class="inv_group_img" align="center"><%=image_tag "investor_groups/#{inv_group.title}.jpg"%></div>       <div class="inv_group_details">     <%=inv_group.activated_members.size%><br>     <%end%>

The alignment of the view might be hay wire currently, but thats not my immediate focus. Thus kindly, ignore the same.

I have an idea of what I need to do and I have been able to write some code for the same in my groups_controller.rb

To get what I require, I tried the following:-

    def calculate_members_count         @investor_group = InvestorGroup.find(params[:id])         @members_count = @investor_group.activated_members.size         return "@members_count", :title       end

Now this should give me the group title/name and the members_count. I am not sure how could I fetch the image also within the same method.

Also, from this If it could work correctly, I kinda have done some guess work for the changes to be reflected in the already written autocomplete functionality. I am not too sure if they would be correct... but here it goes..

I changed the following in my **index.html.erb**

    Search for a investor group: <%= text_field_with_auto_complete :investor_group, :calculate_members_count, {}, {:method => :get} %><%=submit_tag "Search"%>

I changed the following in my **groups_controller.rb** auto_complete_for :investor_group,:calculate_members_count

I am really not sure if I am correct till here, if so I really can't figure out what change I would now need to reflect in **routes.rb**

I wanted to also ask, do I need make some changes to my model by any chance. I don't think so, but just asked in case.

Also I guess if the auto complete text field supports query search for only one attribute, in this case would I have to define a customized auto complete search to suit my requirement? If yes I really have no idea on how to get a head start, and how to go about it. I may be just now that there would be also a need of a custom javascript also for this.

Kindly help me on this. Any inputs on this would be really handy..

Thanks for your patient reading and time..