Possible to add new item to autocomplete item list?

[Anurag]

Hi

I wanted to check if the user types out an item that is NOT present in the items array then is it possible to push what the user has typed as a new item into the array and select the same.

Thanks

[Nick Iliev]

Anurag,

The RadAutocomplete control does not provide this functionality out-of-the-box.
However, you can access the native controls behind he RadAutocomplete and create your event handles (e.g., for textChange in Android) and implement your logic on what to happen when the user enters a non-existing token value.

For example:

var autocmp = args.object; // get reference to your RadAutoCompleteTextView either via loaded or via getViewById

console.log("autocmp: " + autocmp) // RadAutoCompleteTextView

var nativeTField = autocmp.android.getTextField();
console.log("nativeTextField: " + nativeTField) // android.widget.EditText (the Android native widget EditText)

nativeTField.addTextChangedListener(new android.text.TextWatcher({

    afterTextChanged(s) {
        console.log("afterTextChanged");
        console.log(s);
    },
    beforeTextChanged(s, start, count, after) {
        console.log("beforeTextChanged");
        console.log(s);
        console.log(start);
        console.log(count);
        console.log(after);
    },
    onTextChanged(s, start, before, count) {
        console.log("onTextChanged");
        console.log(s);
        console.log(start);
        console.log(before);
        console.log(count);
    }
}));

Based on that approach you can now check how the user input has changed and introduce your new tokens on the fly.

Regards,
Nikolay Iliev
Progress Telerik

[Anurag]

Hi Nikolay

Thanks for the suggestion, it helps. Since I need a similar functionality on IOS as well, is there some way to achieve a similar outcome on IOS too. 

Best,

Anurag

[Nick Iliev]

Anurag,

Accessing the events responsible for text change in UITextField (which is the extended native control behind the textField property in RadAutomcompleteTextView is a not a straightforward task, and we would not recommend it as it might change the way the control works. Currently, the only officially supported events for iOS are the one posted here.

However, if you want to experiment and provide custom logic, you can do that with overwriting the delegate method responsible for providing the methods for user interaction.

For example:

let radAutomComplete = <RadAutoCompleteTextView>args.object;

let tkAutoComplete = radAutomComplete.ios // TKAutoCompleteTextView http://docs.telerik.com/devtools/ios/api/Classes/TKAutoCompleteTextView.html

tkAutoComplete.delegate // overwrite the delegate method http://docs.telerik.com/devtools/ios/api/Classes/TKAutoCompleteTextView.html#//api/name/delegate

Example on how to overwrite a delegate method using TypeScript can be found here.

Once again this is not recommended approach as it could break your application if and when internal changes are made to RadAutocompleteTextView.



Regards,
Nikolay Iliev
Progress Telerik

[Anurag]

Hi Nikolay

Thanks for your prompt response and your advice. In that case,  I will avoid this approach and explore providing a different interface to add new text data to the items array.  I have put in a feature request here to provide a way to easily access the text entered into the autocomplete view.

Regards

Anurag