AutoCompleteBox: Determine if text came from AutoCompleteItems

[John]

Hey Telerik!

I would like to determine if a newly created text block was from the autocompleteitems list or not.

I noticed that your AutoCompleteItems used a RadListDataItemCollection.  Is it possible to use a collection of objects ?

If not, I will be adding items to the AutoCompleteItems in the form of 

items.Add(New RadListDataItem("Joe Smith", "GUID HERE"))

I was assuming the CreateTextBlock event could be used to determine if there was a GUID value attached or not.  I could use this as a way to determine if the item was from the AutoCompleteItems.  I am not sure how to get the data value for the text block element or hopefully custom class for the newly created block.

Thanks

[Stefan]

Hi John,

Thank you for writing.

To check whether an item is from the auto complete items, you can use the CreateTextBlock event and perform the desired verification:

Private Sub RadAutoCompleteBox1_CreateTextBlock(sender As Object, e As CreateTextBlockEventArgs) Handles RadAutoCompleteBox1.CreateTextBlock
       Dim index As Integer = RadAutoCompleteBox1.AutoCompleteItems.IndexOf(e.Text)

       If index > -1 Then
           Console.WriteLine(RadAutoCompleteBox1.AutoCompleteItems(index).Value)
       End If
   End Sub

The code above, also demonstrates how to access the selected item Value.

In order to use a collection of objects, you should use the AutoCompleteDataSource property of the control:

Dim list As New List(Of MyObject)
 list.Add(New MyObject() With {.ID = 1, .Name = "Name 1"})
 list.Add(New MyObject() With {.ID = 2, .Name = "Name 2"})
 list.Add(New MyObject() With {.ID = 3, .Name = "Name 3"})

 RadAutoCompleteBox1.AutoCompleteDataSource = list
 RadAutoCompleteBox1.AutoCompleteDisplayMember = "Name"

Class MyObject
    Private _id As Integer
    Public Property ID() As Integer
        Get
            Return _id
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As Integer)
            _id = value
        End Set
    End Property

    Private _name As String
    Public Property Name() As String
        Get
            Return _name
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _name = value
        End Set
    End Property
End Class

I hope that you find this information useful. Let us know if you need anything else.
 
Greetings,
Stefan
the Telerik team