See: #5438 for details.

@test works!

Thanks, smz!

@smz
jquery.autocomplete.min.js is used for Search Suggestions and it's not always loaded because search suggestions can be disabled in finder component settings or in finder module settings.

Probably the better way is to add JHtml::_('jquery.framework'); line after condition:
if ($params->get('show_autosuggest', 1))
I checked, highlight works in this case fine.

@smz I think the best solution here is to edit behavior.php and add jquery.framework under the function for highlighter.

@smz I was wrong, advanced also needs jquery.

@test OK

Guys, I'm full of doubts: while it is true that also with my first commit things do works (even autocomplete and that also if highlighting is turned off), it also true that autocomplete needs jQuery, so conceptually we should explicitly load it also for it, even though there are at least "very good odds" that jQuery is loaded somewhere else.

So I think that everything boils down to this: do we want optimized code or safer code?

A possible alternative could be to put the following at the top:

if ($this->params->get('show_advanced', 1) || $this->params->get('show_autosuggest', 1))
{
    JHtml::_('behavior.core');
    JHtml::_('jquery.framework');
}

(@dgt41 core needed in both cases, right?)

Same about @dgt41's proposal of putting JHtml::_('jquery.framework'); inside behavior.php, before the highlighter thing: probably unneeded, but safer...

As @okonomiyaki3000 as shown in #5154, sometimes code optimization can have dramatic results...

@dgt41 Unrelated. Dimitris, I think that if both autocomplete and highlight are turned off you end up creating an empty jQuery function. Do you want me to fix that too while I'm editing this file?

@smz actually that suggestion for behavior.php is wrong, because the relative code is already there.
The logic needs some improvements, my initial approach here was: don’t break anything, remove mootools where possible. So yes both core and jquery can be selectively loaded only when needed. Just as a remark: the old behavior.framework was always loading core.js, also the behavior.core till very recently was loading jquery also, now it isn’t. Bottom line we have to go through all the views and explicitly call whatever is needed each time. Mootools is mostly out but still there might be room for further improvement (due to the changes in behavior.core)
My 2c

@dgt41 look at the latest commit: apparently it is a "major" work, but actually I just conditioned the whole script generation (and JS libraries loading) to the existence of at least one of the parameters requiring it...

Is that OK for you?

If it is OK, can we give this a kick in the butt? @waader can you please re-test? @dgt41 remember the @test in Jissues...

@smz If I clear both core and jquery I still don’t get any errors. Can you give me instructions how you came up with an error here? Both those calls seem unneeded here

@dgt41 Ehhmm... which error? The initial one?

yeap

Just a very simple site (Protostar), with "Smart Search" both as a menu item and a module... Skype+TeamViewer come and see?

Hold on everybody: further commits are probably coming...

Still hold on, please...

PR ready for testing: thanks!

@(re)test works for me, thanks!

Thanks for testing, @waader !

@test Success, after applying the patch the highlighting works. Just need to remove that one duplicate line.

@roland-d Fixed. Thank-you for testing!

@test success

@dgt41 Thanks, Dimitris!