Default values for AutoCompleteFilter (from Futures)

Question

User1414551024 posted

Hi,

DynamicData scaffolding makes good use of foreign-key relationships by displaying a column 'View child objects' - that when clicked navigates user to screen with automatically correctly set filters (on parent object).

AutoCompleteFilter from FuturesSamples is a nice alternative to default dropdowns for foreign-keys because it allows both typing and selecting from (matching) list. However, because it works differently (with ajaxtoolkit autocomplete extender / webservice to get matching list) I'm not sure how best to approach to have initial value (from querystring / passed on from parent screen) displayed in textbox:

I have so far changed one line:

<asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="AutocompleteValue" Value="<%# InitialValue %>" />

But I also need text-equivalent for the textbox. Do I need to get the text myself from db based on id that I have, or some other more elegant way?

Answer 1

User-797310475 posted

 There's a method (something like GetDisplayString) on MetaTable that you could call to get the display string for a given row. However, you will have to pass in an actual instance of the object. In the Futures project there are some Linq helpers for querying for items in a generic way. Have a look at how the autocomplete service generates its results for some suggestions. (sorry i'm not providing more details, i'm away from my dev box right now).