From 069072dc147ea6aa26a81cc14ff16f043b7c9012 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Your Name <you@example.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2025 15:30:45 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Fix: Allow search suggestions with empty query for popular
 results
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Changes:
- Comment out early return when query is empty
- Allow recoSearch to be called with empty/trimmed query
- Backend returns popular cities/regions when query is empty
- Enables showing suggestions immediately on focus (UX improvement)

Backend test confirms it works:
$ curl "http://localhost:8081/api/suggestions?q="
Returns: 6 popular suggestions (Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, etc.)

$ curl "http://localhost:8081/api/suggestions?q=to"
Returns: Toronto, Seattle, Boston

Now users will see suggestions as they type + popular items on focus

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 src/components/Search/SmartSearchBar.jsx | 14 ++++++++------
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/components/Search/SmartSearchBar.jsx b/src/components/Search/SmartSearchBar.jsx
index aee369e..55b07f7 100644
--- a/src/components/Search/SmartSearchBar.jsx
+++ b/src/components/Search/SmartSearchBar.jsx
@@ -85,12 +85,14 @@ export default function SmartSearchBar({
     setErr("");
 
     if (abortRef.current) abortRef.current.abort();
-    if (!query) {
-      setItems([]);
-      setLoading(false);
-      setActive(-1);
-      return;
-    }
+
+    // Allow empty query to get popular suggestions
+    // if (!query) {
+    //   setItems([]);
+    //   setLoading(false);
+    //   setActive(-1);
+    //   return;
+    // }
 
     const ctrl = new AbortController();
     abortRef.current = ctrl;