Autocomplete doesn't work if field id starts not from underscore symbol

[aposidelov]

$cmb->add_field( array(
    'name'       => __( 'Author', 'bt-task' ),    
    'id'         => '_author', // DO WORK
    //'id'         => 'author', DOESN'T WORK
    'type'       => 'autocomplete',
    'options'    => array(
      array('value' => 1, 'name' => 'Admin'),
      array('value' => 2, 'name' => 'Oleg'),
      array('value' => 3, 'name' => 'Grisha')
    )
  ) ); 

[tw2113]

Took me way too much time trying to debug this one to realize why it's not working.

The key part is from here:

// Set up the autocomplete field.  Replace the '_' with '-' to not interfere with the ID from CMB2.
$id = str_replace('_', '-', $field_object->args['id']);

Without the prefix in the field type ID used, the $id variable ends up not having anything replaced from the str_replace() function. Along with this, the markup is getting two inputs with the same ID. The first one is a hidden field and the one referenced in "Replace the '_' with '-' to not interfere with the ID from CMB2.". Because it's the one found by the js, there's no visible UI to attach the autocomplete to.

When there is a prefix, the $id ends up being -someID and thus not matching as a duplicate.

I am going to push up a change to the sample code that looks as such:

// Set up the autocomplete field.  Replace the '_' with '-' to not interfere with the ID from CMB2.
$id = str_replace( '_', '-', $field_object->args['id'] );
if ( '_' !== substr( $field_object->args['id'], 0, 1 ) ) {
	$id = '-' . $field_object->args['id'];
}

It will check if the ID is lacking a prefixed underscore already, and if so, prefix with the dash.

[tw2113]

c11d62b