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.NET Forum / Windows Forms / WinForm General / February 2006Auto Complete/Suggest (On Steroids)
I am looking to implement a search feature into a Windows Forms MDI application. Specifically I plan to embed 3 textboxes into a toolbar; one for LastName, another for FirstName, and one for CustomerID. When the user starts typing into any of these textboxes I would like to pop up another form that shows the user a dynamic list of the closest matches. The user can then use the up- and down-arrow keys to select a customer from that pop up form. To see an example of similar ("close-but-not-quite") functionality, go to http://www.thebusco.com/ and in the upper left-hand corner there is a textbox with 'Enter Part Search Here'. Start typing 'air vent cover' to see the behaviour in question. Yes, it's a Web application and I'm doing a Windows Forms app, but it shows you the general idea of what I'm trying to accomplish with Windows Forms. Please note that I am familiar with the new 2.0 features: AutoCompleteMode, AutoCompleteSource, and AutoCompleteCustomSource. But those won't work for my situation because I'm *not* looking to simply populate a textbox or a combo box from the list. What I am needing to do is let the user select the customer for which info is to appear in the currently active MDI form (and not only the control into which they are typing). The idea is that the user starts typing into any one of the 3 textboxes; as they type - the pop up window appears and shows the closest matches. The user then hits the down arrow key a few times to select the desired match, then hits Enter to (1) close the popup window, and (2) trigger logic that shows the selected customer's info in the currently active MDI form. Note that I want to pop up another window [for the closest matches] so that I can show the user many property values for the possible matches (and not simply show them a list of names similar to the one they are searching, for example). What do you see as the biggest challenges in accomplishing this dynamic search capability (and reasonable solutions)? What are the building blocks you might suggest for the solution? Thanks for your time and consideration! If I might suggest an ugly solution...feel free to flame. Why not populate a combobox dropdown with all your lookup data. Then upon focus event, drop down the combobox and let the user type whatever. The combobox will go to the matching item. Regards. > I am looking to implement a search feature into a Windows Forms MDI > application. Specifically I plan to embed 3 textboxes into a toolbar; one [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > > Thanks for your time and consideration! Come on Frank. I'm not into flaming and I won't do it now... though tempted :-) > If I might suggest an ugly solution...feel free to flame. > [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] >> >> Thanks for your time and consideration! > Come on Frank. I'm not into flaming and I won't do it now... though tempted > :-) I hear you, you don't want a half-baked solution. If that's the case there is no substitute for coding it up the hard way. Put a small listbox beneath the textbox and repopulate as needed based on the user input. If I am not mistaken you want autocomplete as coded by Google here: http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en >> If I might suggest an ugly solution...feel free to flame. >> [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] >>> >>> Thanks for your time and consideration! << If that's the case there is no substitute for coding it up the hard way.>> Right! I'm happy to do that. Like Patrice said perhaps my question is too vague as is. Guess I was hoping someone would have done something similar and would be in a position to tell me the building blocks that worked for them. I could come up with my own and it looks like I'll be doing that. But before reinventing the wheel... -S >> Come on Frank. I'm not into flaming and I won't do it now... though >> tempted :-) [quoted text clipped - 54 lines] >>>> >>>> Thanks for your time and consideration! I am actually interested in creating something just like what you have described. Have you come up with a solution for this? Looks a bit vague. IMO your best bet would be to give this a try (should be quite easy) and ask for specific questions for possible enhancements if needed (essentially depending on the response time you have given the amount of data you search in)...  SignaturePatrice > I am looking to implement a search feature into a Windows Forms MDI > application. Specifically I plan to embed 3 textboxes into a toolbar; one [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > > Thanks for your time and consideration!
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