title: JQuery _renderItem not being called
body: <p>I am trying to create a custom ui-menu-item element using the _renderItem function but after may tries I can't get the function to even be called.  The auto-complete is working but it is like the _renderItem function is not there. Here is my script scction</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;script language="Javascript" type="text/javascript"&gt;
      function split( val ) {
      return val.split( /,\s*/ );
  } 
  function extractLast( term ) {
      return split( term ).pop();
  }
  
  $j(document).ready(function() { //START of ready function
  $j( "#custom-report" )
  .autocomplete({
  source: function( request, response ) {
  $j.getJSON( "&lt;?=$this-&gt;url(array("controller"=&gt;"report", "action"=&gt;"custom-autocomplete"))?&gt;", {
  term: extractLast( request.term )
  }, response );
  },
  
  search: function() {
  //Place holder
  },
  
  focus: function (event, ui) {
         // Prevent the default focus behavior.
         event.preventDefault();
  },
  
  select: function( event, ui ) {
  var terms = split( this.value );
  terms.pop();
  terms.push( ui.item.value );
  this.value = terms.join( ", " );
  return false;
  }
  }).data("autocomplete")._renderItem = function (ul, item) {
          return $("&lt;li /&gt;")
              .data("item.autocomplete", item)
              .append("This is the text")
              .addClass("tip")
              .attr("desc", "This is the description")
              .appendTo(ul);
      };
  }); //END of ready function
  &lt;/script&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Anyone have any idea why this is not working?</p>