What is SmartAutoComplete.Net?

SmartAutoComplete.Net is an extension to Yahoo User Interface (YUI) library control AutoComplete. All the implementations of autocpmplete or autosuggest AJAX controls offered by all vendors provide you will ability to show only one type of list of suggesitons in the control. But a lot of time you are faced with challenge to include more than one type of list in the autocomplete dropdown list and need to be able to render it in a way that all the lists can be clearly identified. Look at the following image and then you will know what we are talking about.

We have tried to expose as many attributes from yahoo control as we could. The set that we exposed is one that is used most commonly as let you customize the rendering of control as much as you wish. And if you see that this version of the control is missing some key attributes from yahoo control, please feel free to conttact us and we will try to incorporate those in next release.

How do I use it?

Using the control is as easy as dropping a validator control on the page and associating with an existing control.

<Winista:SmartAutoComplete ID="mySmartControl" runat="server" ShowHeader="True" HeaderText="Our Suggestions" 
 InputControlId="SmartInput_TextBox" ContainerControlId="SmartContainer_Panel"
 ResultFieldName="Keyword"
 ClientSideResultFormatCallBack="mainFormatResult"
 ClientSizeHeaderFormatCallBack="formatMainHeaderDisplay"
 ClientSideSectionHeaderFormatCallBack="formatSectionHeaderDisplay" 
 ClientSideSectionResultFormatCallBack="sectionFormatResult">
	<MainDataSource DataUrl="http://localhost/AutoCompleteDataService/SuggestionService.aspx"
	 QueryParameter="q" DataSchema="["Suggestions","Keyword"]" 
	 QueryParametersToAppend="results=10" />
	<AutoCompleteSections>
		<Winista:AutoCompleteSection MaxItemsToDisplay="5" SectionId="1"
			SectionName="Whats Hot" SectionType="History" 
			ClientSideDataCallBack="" ShowSection="True">
			<DataSource QueryParameter="q" 
			DataUrl="http://localhost/AutoCompleteDataService/HistoryService.aspx"  
			DataSchema="["Suggestions","Keyword"]" QueryParametersToAppend="results=10" />
		</Winista:AutoCompleteSection>
		<Winista:AutoCompleteSection MaxItemsToDisplay="3" SectionId="2"
			SectionName="I Like It" SectionType="Favorites" 
			ClientSideDataCallBack="" ShowSection="True">
			<DataSource QueryParameter="q" 
			DataUrl="http://localhost/AutoCompleteDataService/FavoriteService.aspx"  
			DataSchema="["Favorites","Keyword"]" QueryParametersToAppend="results=10" />
		</Winista:AutoCompleteSection>
	</AutoCompleteSections>
</Winista:SmartAutoComplete>
						

Visual Studio ToolBox

Of course, you can drag this control from toolbox. And then use standard property view to configure the layout of popup.

Product Updates

SamrtAutoComplete.Net V1.0 Release - 7/1/2007

First product release of the control.

Known Issues

• Only data format supported in this release is JSON.
• This version does not support use of a java script funciton to get data. You will need to have a web service to get the data to display on control.
• Some time when you update a property in visual studio propety view, it is not persisted on the page.