[Solved] Autocomplete not retrieving values as expected

[Roatin Marth]

Using Ajax binding with client caching enabled (the default), the AutoComplete control shows wrong matches when typing a subset of a previously typed value.

1. Quickly type some multi-char text, eg "al". The Quickly part is to ensure a single ajax request instead of one per char typed.
2. Backspace to clear the field.
3. Type only a subset of what was typed in step 1, eg "a"

Expected result: show all items that start with "a" (eg "Alice Mutton", "Aniseed Syrup")
Actual result: only shows items that start with "al" (eg only "Alice Mutton")

Demo available at http://demos.telerik.com/aspnet-mvc/combobox/ajaxloading (under "AutoComplete").

[Georgi Krustev]

Hello Roatin,

 
The described behavior is actually expected.

When end user quickly types "al" then only words which starts with "al" will be returned from the server. When caching is enabled then the AutoComplete will try to find matching word from the current data. Hence if user types "a" the autocomplete will find a matching word from the current data and will not make another request. 

In order to avoid this behavior you can turn off the caching of the autocomplete. The other option is to filter data by first letter of the input value. Thus the autocomplete will be able to still not make additional Ajax requests and show correct result after filtration.

Regards,
Georgi Krustev
the Telerik team

[Roatin Marth]

The difference between working (getting all "a" items) and not working (getting only "al" items) is less than 200 milliseconds. 

User's generally don't keep track of how long it takes them to type. When the control shows matches for one person that are different than another person who happened to type < 200 ms slower/faster, then we get what's described in the industry as "unexpected behavior".

Please fix this.

[Georgi Krustev]

Hello Roatin Marth,

 
Please excuse me if I am not understanding your statement correctly.

The mentioned "200 miliseconds" are fully adjustable. If you want to return result faster or slower you will need to use Delay method. I am not sure what should be fixed in the component as this functionalities are fully adjustable.

As to the filtering of the combobox you should disable caching of the component.

Here is a code snippet showing what I mean:

<%= Html.Telerik().ComboBox()
                .Name("AjaxComboBox")
                .AutoFill(true)
                .DataBinding(binding => binding.Ajax()
                                               .Select("_AjaxLoading", "ComboBox")
                                               .Cache(false)
                                               .Delay(400))
                .Filterable(filtering =>
                {
                    filtering.FilterMode(AutoCompleteFilterMode.StartsWith);
                })
                .HighlightFirstMatch(true)
        %>

Let me know if I am missing something.

Regards,
Georgi Krustev
the Telerik team