Append a font-awesome icon to autocomplete search box

[Emiel]

Here's another situation in which I would like to grab the typed contents of the auto-complete input field:

Bind input content of auto-complete input field

What I am trying to do: I got an input field with auto-complete enabled. If there are no results from the auto-complete, I want to use the input (typed) value in the input field to bind it to a server connect action (or hidden form). But the value from the data bindings menu of that (auto-complete) input field is not equal to the typed input text, because the value is set by the autocomplete function. So how can I grab this typed text?? Thanks for any help in advance.

I can't believe this is just impossible, is it?