jQuery UI Multicolumn Autocomplete

Trying to make the autocomplete plugin work with multiple columns.

by rajeshpillai

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.19/themes/cupertino/jquery-ui.css">
<div style="margin:10px 10px;padding:8px;width:400px;" class="ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-corner-all">
        <div style="margin:0 0 14px 0; font-size:.7em;">An example of a 3 column autocomplete control.</div>
        <div style="margin:0 0 4px 4px;">Find a city</div>
        
        <!-- This is the input control that gets turned into the jquery ui widget -->
        <input id="search" type="text" style="padding:2px;font-size:.8em;width:300px;"/>
        
        <div style="font-size:0.7em;color:#999;">Makes use of the web service at <a href="http://geonames.org">geonames.org</a></div>            
        <div style="margin:20px 0 0 0;">
            <span id="results" style="color:#68a;"></span>
        </div>    
    </div>

CSS

.ui-autocomplete-loading { background: white url('http://jqueryui.com/demos/autocomplete/images/ui-anim_basic_16x16.gif') right center no-repeat; }

JavaScript

/*
 * jQuery UI Multicolumn Autocomplete Widget Plugin 1.0
 * Copyright (c) 2012 Mark Harmon
 *
 * Depends:
 *   - jQuery UI Autocomplete widget
 *
 * Dual licensed under the MIT and GPL licenses:
 *   http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
 *   http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
*/
$.widget('custom.mcautocomplete', $.ui.autocomplete, {
    _renderMenu: function(ul, items) {
        var self = this,
            thead;

        if (this.options.showHeader) {
            table = $('<div class="ui-widget-header" style="width:100%"></div>');
            $.each(this.options.columns, function(index, item) {
                table.append('<span style="padding:0 4px;float:left;width:' + item.width + ';">' + item.name + '</span>');
            });
            table.append('<div style="clear: both;"></div>');
            ul.append(table);
        }
        $.each(items, function(index, item) {
            self._renderItem(ul, item);
        });
    },
    _renderItem: function(ul, item) {
        var t = '',
            result = '';

        $.each(this.options.columns, function(index, column) {
            t += '<span style="padding:0 4px;float:left;width:' + column.width + ';">' + item[column.valueField ? column.valueField : index] + '</span>'
        });

        result = $('<li></li>').data('item.autocomplete', item).append('<a class="mcacAnchor">' + t + '<div style="clear: both;"></div></a>').appendTo(ul);
        return result;
    }
});


// Sets up the multicolumn autocomplete widget.
$("#search").mcautocomplete({
    // These next two options are what this plugin adds to the autocomplete widget.
    showHeader: true,
    columns: [{
        name: 'City',
        width: '150px',
        valueField: 'name'},
    {
        name: 'State',
        width: '120px',
        valueField: 'adminName1'},
    {
        name: 'Country',
        width: '120px',
        valueField: 'countryName'}],

    // Event handler for when a list item is selected.
    select:...