Is Your AutoCompleteExtender Not Working?

As you're probably aware by now, the first ASP.NET AJAX (formerly known as "Atlas") beta has been published. Like a lot of folks, I'm slogging through all my old Atlas code porting it to work on the beta. There are LOTS of changes, and porting a non-trivial app takes time. I feel sorry for book authors, especially those whose books have already gone to press. An ASP.NET AJAX book printed before the beta is next to worthless.

In two weeks, I stand up before a TechEd crowd in Barcelona and present a full day of ASP.NET AJAX. I hope I can digest all the changes before then.

I just spent hours trying to get an AutoCompleteExtender that worked fine in the last CTP to work on the beta. One required change is to attribute the Web service that the extender calls [ScriptService] rather than [WebService]. But the one that threw me for a loop was the AutoCompleteExtender's new CompletionListElementID property. In the last CTP, the property was named DropDownPanelID and you set it to the server ID of a Panel control. Now you set CompletionListElementID to the client ID of the Panel. If the Panel is in a Content control, the client ID doesn't equal the server ID, so instead of writing this:

<asp:AutoCompleteExtender DropDownPanelID="ZipCodeCompletionList" ... />

You write something like this:

<asp:AutoCompleteExtender CompletionListElementID="ctl00_MainPlaceHolder_ZipCodeCompletionList" ... />

Simple. But an absolute time-killer until you figure it out.

On Oct 21 2006 8:17 PMBy jprosise
With 11 Comments Jeff Prosise

Comments (11)

  1. Matt Landers

    This appears to be a bug with ASP.Net Ajax beta 1 and Master Pages. If you use the AutoCompleteExtender on a page that does not use a master page, it works like it used to.

  2. Jeff Prosise

    That's because if the panel isn't in a Content control or some other naming container, the server ID equals the client ID.

  3. Jacek

    Can you imagine that's only page all over the web that mentions CompletionListElementID property? Have a look: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&amp;q=CompletionListElementID&amp;btnG=Google+Search&amp;meta= Now, that's what we call support ....

  5. J.P.

    If you have an AutoCompleteExtender, how come I don't? Mine seems to be missing ever since I installed the beta.

  6. Jeff Prosise

    It's not in the GACed assembly; it's in Microsoft.Web.Preview.dll. Therefore, to use it, you need to download the CTP bits and drop the DLL into your Bin directory.

  7. Roy

    http://forums.asp.net/thread/1453297.aspx Your solution isn't working in my testing? See link. For the love of God, please help! Any insight would be incredibly appreciated!

  8. cabbage soup diet

    just spent hours trying to get an AutoCompleteExtender that worked fine in the last CTP to work on the beta. One required change is to attribute the Web service that the extender calls [ScriptService] rather than [WebService]. But the one that threw me for a loop was the AutoCompleteExtender's new CompletionListElementID property. In the last CTP, the property was named DropDownPanelID and you set it to the server ID of a Panel control. Now you set CompletionListElementID to the client ID of the Panel. If the Panel is in a Content control, the client ID doesn't equal the server ID, so instead of writing this: hrm interesting

  9. Tom

    If I get an autocompletion value from lets say peoples names; how can i get theire unique value (a person has a unique id != their name).

    445 - Tom
    343 - Steven
    45556 - An

    I want to be able to get the ID but type the name.. if you understand what i'm saying..

Leave a Comment

Archives

Tags