autoComplete CakePHP 2.0 - cakephp

Question

Since CakePHP 1.3, the Ajax helper has been deprecated, one cannot user $ajax->Autocomplete..
I use Cake 2.0, and wish to implement dynamic autocomplete( dynamic table, dynamic field) it seems impossible with current tutorials available.
What is closest alternative to $ajax->autoComplete in cakephp 2.0?

Answer 1

One method I've used is to create an Autocomplete Controller (or better yet build it as a plugin), with a method similar to this:
class AutocompleteController extends AppController {
public function fetch($model, $field, $query) {
$this->loadModel($model);
$results = $this->$model->find('all', array(
'conditions'=>array(
$model . "." . $field . " LIKE '%" . $query . "%'"
)
));
$this->set(compact('results');
}
}
/Views/Autocomplete/fetch.ctp:
<?php echo json_encode($results); ?>
To fetch the data, you would use the following URL in your javascript:
/autocomplete/fetch/name_of_your_model/name_of_your_field/string_to_look_for
e.g.
/autocomplete/fetch/User/name/rich
Edit:
Another alternative is to create an autocomplete method in app controller:
public function autocomplete($field, $query) {
$model = $this->{$this->$modelClass}->alias;
$results = $this->$model->find('all', array(
'conditions'=>array(
$model . "." . $field . " LIKE '%" . $query . "%'"
)
));
$this->set(compact('results');
}
And is called with a url like this:
/users/autocomplete/name/rich
which will return all users with an email address LIKE '%rich%'