How to properly implement live search in yii1?

Question

JavaScript

Hello. I did a live search, but in yii1 it breaks everything that is possible. What is the best way to structure this whole thing?

Now I just put the JS and the handler in a separate folder:

JS code:

$(function() {

            //Живой поиск
            $('.who').bind("change keyup input click", function() {
                if (this.value.length >= 2) {
                    $.ajax({
                        type: 'post',
                        url: "/testing/search.php", //Путь к обработчику
                        data: { 'referal': this.value },

                        response: 'text',
                        success: function(data) {
                            $(".search_result").html(data).fadeIn(); //Выводим полученые данные в списке
                        }
                    })
                }
            })

            $(".search_result").hover(function() {
                $(".who").blur(); //Убираем фокус с input
            })

            //При выборе результата поиска, прячем список и заносим выбранный результат в input
            $(".search_result").on("click", "li", function() {
                s_user = $(this).text();
                $(".who").val(s_user).attr('enabled', 'enabled'); //деактивируем input, если нужно
                $(".search_result").fadeOut();
            })

        })

Handler code:

if(!empty($_POST["referal"])){ //Принимаем данные

        $referal = trim(strip_tags(stripcslashes(htmlspecialchars($_POST["referal"]))));

        $db_referal = $mysqli -> query("SELECT * from city WHERE name LIKE '%$referal%'");

        while ($row = $db_referal -> fetch_array()) {
            echo '<ul class="results">';
            echo "\n<li>".$row["name"]."</li></ul>"; //$row["name"] - имя поля таблицы
            
        }

and in main:
<div class="search_result"></div>

$(function (){ 
    $('.searchCity').click(function(){
       var text = $('.who').val(); 
       $('.cityChange').text(text);
    });
});

As it will be correct, according to MVC it ​​is organized. If the handler is thrown into the model, is it possible to separately access the method somehow? Or are there other solutions? Thanks

Answer 1

Why a model? The request must go to the controller, there, refer to the model and its methods, to receive data and pass the model to the view.
I don’t remember yii1 anymore, in yii2 I would stuff all the html and js into the widget.