AutoComplete not displaying anything

[Scott]

I have the following .chtml, view model, and controller actions.  However, the auto complete never displays any results even though I can see that the Jason results are sent back to the browser. 

.chtml
@model IEnumerable<Trishulla.Erp.Web.Core.Main.Models.CustomerNameModel>
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "New Appointment";
}
<section class="contentTile">
        New Appointment
</section>
@section navigation{
        @Html.Partial("_DailyServiceLeftNav")
}


@(Html.Kendo().AutoComplete()
          .Name("CustomersAutoComplete")
          .BindTo(Model)
          .Suggest(true)
          .DataTextField("Name")          
          .Filter(FilterType.StartsWith)
          .Placeholder("Customers...")
          .DataSource(source =>
                          {                              
                              source.Read(read =>
                                              {
                                                  read.Action("GetActiveCustomers", "DailyService");
                                              }).ServerFiltering(true);
                          })                                 
)


View Model:
public class CustomerNameModel
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
}

Controller actions:
 public ActionResult NewAppointment()
        {
            IEnumerable<CustomerNameModel> customerModel = this.customerService.CustomerRepository.GetMany(c => c.IsActive)
                                            .Select(c => new CustomerNameModel
                                            {
                                                Id = c.Id,
                                                Name = string.Format("{0} {1}", c.FirstName, c.LastName)                                               
                                            });


            return View(customerModel.ToList());
        }


        [HttpGet]
        public ActionResult GetActiveCustomers([DataSourceRequest] DataSourceRequest request)
        {
            string searchValue = Request.Params["filter[filters][0][value]"];
            IEnumerable<CustomerNameModel> customerModel = this.customerService.CustomerRepository.GetMany(c => c.IsActive)
                                            .Select(c => new CustomerNameModel
                                            {
                                                Id = c.Id,
                                                Name = string.Format("{0} {1}", c.FirstName, c.LastName)
                                            });


            var returnVal = Json(customerModel.Where(c => c.Name.StartsWith(searchValue, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)).ToList().ToDataSourceResult(request), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
            return returnVal;
        }

[Georgi Krustev]

Hello Scott,

 
The ToDataSourceResult extension method will return the filtered cutomerModel list using a specific schema:

{ Data: [list of data], Total: number }

This in general is required for the Grid widget. The AutoComplete in your code snippet on the other hand expects the JSON to be a simple array of objects. Here is the correct return:

var returnVal = Json(customerModel.Where(c => c.Name.StartsWith(searchValue, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)).ToList(), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);

Regards,
Georgi Krustev
the Telerik team