You could use the elgg_get_tags() function.

Thanks - that looks perfect. I wasn't planning on using that metadata field as a tag but I don't think it'll hurt. Cheers

You don't need to use it as a tag everywhere on the site. As an example, take a look at how the file plugin uses the type of the file to create a categorized list: get_filetype_cloud() in http://trac.elgg.org/browser/elgg/branches/1.7/mod/file/start.php

It registers that metadata name as a tag just for that call.

@Trajan,

Take a look at hypeLiveSearch. I've done some modifications to autocomplete and its page_handler. Perhaps you can gather some ideas there.

@both:  thanks for the thoughts.

@ihayredinov: I've found your new case for objects (just what I was looking for). What's the coding needed in the hypeautocomplete view for match_on to select a specific subtype?

''match_on' => 'objects' ??????

Update: Solved it with the following code. Thanks again to both of you guys.

case 'words':

// don't return results if groups aren't enabled.

$query = "SELECT * FROM {$CONFIG->dbprefix}objects_entity as oe, {$CONFIG->dbprefix}entities as e

WHERE e.guid = oe.guid

AND e.enabled = 'yes'

$owner_where

                        AND e.subtype = '43'

AND (oe.title LIKE '$q%' OR oe.description LIKE '%$q%')

LIMIT $limit

";

                    if ($entities = get_data($query)) {

                        foreach ($entities as $entity) {

                            $json = json_encode(array(

                                        'type' => 'object',

                                        'subtype' => 'word',

                                        'name' => $entity->title,

                                        'desc' => elgg_get_excerpt(strip_tags($entity->description), 30),

                                        'icon' => '',

                                        'guid' => $entity->guid

                                    ));

                            //$results[$entity->name . rand(1,100)] = "$json|{$entity->guid}";

                            $results[$entity->title . rand(1, 100)] = $json;

                        }

                    }

                break;