How to use asp vbscript to add string items into a javascript array

http://jqueryui.com/autocomplete/#remote the remote datasource. When using firefox with firebug I press F12 to open the console and see the xhr request made when I type something.

Inspecting the response I can see that JSON is used:

[{"id":"Turdus philomelos","label":"Song Thrush","value":"Song Thrush"},
 {"id":"Melospiza melodia","label":"Song Sparrow","value":"Song Sparrow"}
]

I think you can leave out the id because that would be optional. You could try an array of strings return like:

["Song Thrush","Song Sparrow"]

The vb code you're showing looks like server side code that would not run in a browser, the autocomplete will make a call to that asp page when the user types something and that is then used to filter your data:

The GET parameter that the autocomplete sends is called term. Look for the js code on the jquery ui page: http://jqueryui.com/autocomplete/#remote

You could do something like this, assuming that you are happy populating the list on page load and don't want to do a lookup to the server in real-time:

<%
' server-side ASP
Dim rs, data_source, ado
Set ado = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set rs = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
ado.ConnectionString = MM_rtasql_STRING
ado.Open
rs.ActiveConnection = ado
rs.CursorType = 2
rs.CursorLocation = 2
rs.LockType = 3

rs.Open "select field1 from mydatabase where whatever > soandso"

' build up a string which looks like a Javascipt array (eg "['val1','val2']")
' instead of a loop, you could use rs.GetString(), which is quicker
dim s: s = "["
do until rs.EOF
    s = s & "'" & CStr(rs("field1")) & "',"
loop
rs.Close
' remove trailing comma and complete array string
s = left(s, len(s) - 1) & "]"
%>
<!-- client-side -->
<script type="text/javascript">
     $(document).ready(function() {
           $("textbox-selector").autocomplete({
                 source: <%=s %> // ASP insert of javascript array string
           });
     });
</script>

I've not tested this and the jQuery I've taken from their example: http://jqueryui.com/autocomplete/