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Multi column or ItemData in AJAX AutoCompleteExtender?

I've got the AJAX AutoCompleteExtender working in my project. For example, one of them a list of suburbs - if you type in "BUR" it will start listing "BURWOOD" "BURWOOD EAST" etc.

That's great, except that to really use the response, I need to access an ID number, not the string itself. For example, the submitted page needs to use Suburb_ID 1500 rather than the string "BURWOOD".

The lazy approach would be to run SQL queries to translate the string back into the ID ("SELECT ID FROM Suburbs WHERE Name = 'BURWOOD'; ") but architecturally and performance wise this is dreadful.

So my question: Is there a way to for AJAX AutoCompleteExtender to store multiple columns, or, associated item data with each item it lists?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Bob Learned

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blowfly

ASKER

Fair enough, any ideas on a free/open source alternative which might do this?

Otherwise points to you.

Bob Learned

No, but if you find one, it would be a "treasure"...

I am not saying that one doesn't exist, and that the AutoCompleteExtender doesn't support it. I am saying that I don't know of any solution...

blowfly

ASKER

Fair enough, thanks for the help.

avm7878

You can accomplish it one of 2 ways. You can create a Custom Control that inherits the AutoCompleteExtender class and override the Render event.

Or... you can go with this guy's javascript solution:
http://www.darwyn.com/blogs/post/2009/03/03/custom-Auto-Complete-Extender-Extended.aspx

AyhanEren75

If I did not misunderstand the need, here is you can try a couple of lines.

 using (SqlConnection ConnStr = new SqlConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["connectionString"].ConnectionString))
            {
                ConnStr.Open();
                SqlCommand sqlcmd = new SqlCommand(@"NameOfTheStoredProcedure", ConnStr);
                
	  sqlcmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;                
                sqlcmd.Parameters.Add("@ourComingEnteredWord", SqlDbType.NVarChar, 50).Value = prefixText.Trim().ToLower();
                
                SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(sqlcmd);
                DataTable dt = new DataTable("ResultTable");
 
                try
                {
                    da.Fill(dt);
                }
                catch {
                
                }
 
                string[] items = new string[dt.Rows.Count];
                int i = 0;
 
                foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
                {
                    //added for keyvalue pair feature.
                    items.SetValue(AjaxControlToolkit.AutoCompleteExtender.CreateAutoCompleteItem(dr["SuburbName"].ToString(), dr["SuburbID"].ToString()), i);
                    
                    i++;
                }
 
                
                return items;
 
            }//end of sqlconnection

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