Disable automatic selection for AutoCompleteBox

[Vannick]

Dear support,

I am using the control RadAutoCompleteBox with Suggest mode. Everytime I press enter, the first item of the list is choosen.

Let's imagine that in my list, i have the following items: ("Hello", "Hello2").

If I start to write "He" and I click enter, the item "Hello" will be automatically selected.

This is a behaviour that I would like to avoid as I should be able to enter manuel entry. So if I write "He" and if I press enter, I would like the item "He" to be choosen in the textbox as it is my manuel input.

Is it possible to avoid this behaviour and how?

Thanks a lot

[Hristo]

Hello Vannick,

Thank you for writing. 

The default behavior of the auto-complete box is to perform a selection from the auto-complete data source if there is a match considering the inputted text and if the popup is closed by pressing the Enter key. This behavior can be altered and for the purpose, you will need to create a custom control with a special element. Then in the custom RadAutoCompleteBoxElement class, you can override the virtual OnAutoCompleteDropDownKeyDown and close the popup not performing a selection. You can also handle a case for selecting an item from the auto-complete data source as long as the inputted text matches any of the data items. Please check my code snippet below: 

public class CustomRadAutoCompleteBox : RadAutoCompleteBox
{
    public override string ThemeClassName
    {
        get
        {
            return typeof(RadAutoCompleteBox).FullName;
        }
    }

    protected override RadTextBoxControlElement CreateTextBoxElement()
    {
        return new CustomRadAutoCompleteBoxElement();
    }
}

public class CustomRadAutoCompleteBoxElement : RadAutoCompleteBoxElement
{
    protected override Type ThemeEffectiveType
    {
        get
        {
            return typeof(RadAutoCompleteBoxElement);
        }
    }

    protected override void OnAutoCompleteDropDownKeyDown(KeyEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter )
        {
            string inpput = this.Text.IndexOf(this.Delimiter) > 0 ? this.Text.Substring(this.Text.LastIndexOf(this.Delimiter) + 1) : this.Text;
            foreach (RadListDataItem item in this.ListElement.Items)
            {
                if (item.Text == inpput)
                {
                    base.OnAutoCompleteDropDownKeyDown(e);
                    return;
                }
            }

            e.Handled = true;
            this.AutoCompleteDropDown.ClosePopup(new PopupCloseInfo(RadPopupCloseReason.Mouse, MouseEventArgs.Empty));
            return;
        }

        base.OnAutoCompleteDropDownKeyDown(e);
    }
}

I am also attaching a short video showing the result on my end.

Regards,
Hristo
Progress Telerik

[Vannick]

Thanks a lot. I have a look with your remarks,

Have a good day

Regards