Question About AutoComplete

Hello,

I have setup a page containing two text box which utilize the AutoComplete Extension and work perfectly (thanks to the video helps), but I would like to extend this a bit. I would like to use the variable that had been put into the first text box, to restrict what is displayed in the second auto complete. Basically, once I am within my autocomplete.asmx file, how to I get the variable of what was in the first text box to pass into my stored procedure?

Thanks,

Chris

What you want to do is use the contextKey parameter. It's described in thedocumentation for the extender.

Hrm, this is very close, but I still do not see how to assign the text, or a variable, to the ContextKey? I can see how to pass a static piece of text in, which I have had success with, but have not had to much luck with the variable.

Thanks,

Chris

You can use $find('AutocompleteExtenderClientID').set_contextKey() to set that on the client side. So, you'd want to use $addHandler to handle the context textbox's onchange event and update the autocomplete extender's contextKey with the textbox's new value.

Is this what you were talking about? I get some errors when I try to compile it. Also, is there a way to Prepend the text it is going to set?

Thanks so much,

Chris

1<asp:TextBox ID="PortName" runat="server" OnTextChanged=$find('AutoCompletePortName').set_contextKey()></asp:TextBox>23<cc1:AutoCompleteExtender ID="AutoCompletePortName" runat="server" TargetControlID="PortName" ServicePath="AutoComplete.asmx" ServiceMethod="GetCompletionList" MinimumPrefixLength="3" CompletionSetCount="5" ContextKey=$addHandler UseContextKey=True>4 </cc1:AutoCompleteExtender>5

You might be able to do this, but I haven't tested it:

<cc1:AutoCompleteExtender ID="AutoCompletePortName" runat="server" TargetControlID="PortName" ServicePath="AutoComplete.asmx" ServiceMethod="GetCompletionList" MinimumPrefixLength="3" CompletionSetCount="5" ContextKey="$get('<%= PortName.ClientID%>').value" />

If it works, that's going to be the easiest way to do it. Also, you don't have to explicitly set UseContextKey. If a ContextKey is specified, it will automatically use it.

$addHandler is a little bit more complicated than that. You can see a few examples of using it here:http://encosia.com/2007/11/15/exploring-one-of-ms-ajaxs-often-overlooked-features/