EditableDropDown for ComboBox

[Julia Dawkins]

Hello,

I have found the "ComboType" property in the Properties tab of my ComboBox, and am able to set the parameter to "EditableDropDown" so that I can modify an item.  However, I am unable to actually change any of the items in my ComboBox, which is ok, but I would like to know what the user typed in the ComboBox.  Any help is appreciated!

Julia Moeller

[wilken]

Hello,

you can find the text typed in the ComboBox with "NameOfTheControl.text" (e.g. ComboBox.text).

Andreas Wilken

[Julia Dawkins]

Thank you for your reply.  However, this does not work for me.  Just for a test, I have a ComboBox with five items, "1, 2, 3, 4 and 5."  In the subroutine ComboBox_EventChange() I have one line, "MsgBox This.Text"  So when I am running the dialog, and change the selection, I receive each item's text (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5).  However, if I type into the ComboBox, the message box returns empty?

[wilken]

Ok, I see the same behaviour.
I tested it in the sub "Button1_EventClick()" and there it works (line "msgbox ComboBox1.Text").
Maybe it is possible for you to use also another sub (not the ComboBox_EventChange())?
By the way, the "ComboBox_EventChange()" happens for every typed letter, so this sub is maybe not the best choice to work with the typed entry.

[Julia Dawkins]

Thank you for trying!  I will think about using a different "event."  However, what I would like to accomplish is a type of "auto-complete" form for channel selection.  Currently, I have a dialog with two EditBoxes and two ComboBoxes.  A user types either the start of a channel name or any part of the channel name in the EditBox, and I populate the ComboBox with all channels (currently in the portal) containing that text, so the user can select a channel and create a graph or table in REPORT or VIEW.  This is why I'm using the "event change" with the EditBox, so that if a user types more letters in to refine the "search,"  the ComboBox re-filters its list.  So this works quite nicely, but it's not as attractive as I would like.  Ideally, I would like something that looked more like a web browser, when you type in the "address" box, you are given options in the same box.  So if you have other ideas that would achieve this goal that are different from what I am currently doing, that would be great too 🙂

[~jiggawax~]

Hey Julie

I know you are going for the autocomplete style but maybe if you had an update button that would have an event associated with it.  That way every time they changed the combobox they would have to click on the update button to update the graph and such.

Regards,

Message Edited by Sam R on 12-27-2005 12:30 PM

[Julia Dawkins]

Hi Sam,

Thank you for your reply, though I am not sure that I understand your suggestion.  My main question concerns the "EditableDropDown" parameter of "ComboType" for a ComboBox.  If I have a ComboBox that I have selected "EditableDropDown" for, I cannot seem to edit the items of my ComboBox.  I can click on my ComboBox and type something in, but cannot figure out how to (programatically) retrieve what I typed in.  Is this more clear?

Thank you again 🙂

Julia

[Tyler T.]

Julia,

I have investigated this issue.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to retrieve the typed text of the ComboBox control.  The text value returns either a null string, or the text of a selected item of the ComboBox.  This is a known feature that the dialog editor does not provide and is slated to be included in future versions of DIAdem.  There are a couple of options I can think of for the feature you are trying to implement:

(a)  Add an EditBox for the users to type a channel selection.  Using the typed text, you can set the selection of the ComboBox control.

(b)  In addition to the full name of a channel, also add any aliases to the combo box selection.  For instance "Channel 1", "Chn 1", and "1".  The ComboBox does autocomplete text that matches any items.

Regards,

Tyler T

[Julia Dawkins]

Tyler,

Thanks for the reply, it is good to know it is not currently possible.  Yes, what I have now works well (an edit box for the users to type in, and then another ComboBox that displays matching channel names/numbers), but it just wasn't as elegant as I would have liked, but that's ok.  Thanks again!

Julia