[jQuery] Form Input Lookup

[jQuery] Form Input Lookup


Hello, please do excuse my lack of knowledge with JS and JQuery but i
have attempted to avoid everything JS for many years as i just did not
like it.
Although JQuery did make some simple aspects more manageable i still
try to avoid it... but sadly now i need to work with AJAX to make
aspects of a project more simple for its users :D
I am currently trying to create a Username Look up function with
JQuery and i am trying to learn how to do this by hacking up the
jquery.autocomplete plugin i stumbled apon via pengoworks.com.
But i feel im failing as i dont quite understand what is happening
with the script and this means im not really learning anything along
the way - which is not good for me in the long run as i would like to
finally get my head around JS ;)
So if someone would like to step me in the right direction to what i
need to look at for creating a simple JQuery plugin/function that
would allow me to
1: Grab the value of a form input
2: Grab results of a .php page via AJAX ( $.get()?? )
3: Check through the AJAX results ( should i return the data as JSON?
or just | it? )
4: If there is a match / likeness for what is in the form input
addClass('error') IF NOT addClass('accept')
Quite simple really, but with my head my arse regarding JS im not 100%
sure what i should be looking to get through the points.
If someone could just point me to the correct aspects of the API or
Help pages that would be great.
Many thanks for any help and sorry if im just being a twittering
little JS noob :(