Saturday 6 April 2013

Make dropdown list auto complete or searchable or filtering using JQuery with ASP.Net Dropdownlist Control

Click Here to Download Autocomplete And Fancy Dropdown boxes.zip
Also Download From this Link : Download Autocomplete And Fancy Dropdown boxes.zip

There is a situation where you have a large amount of value in dropdown list and you want to make that dropdown user-friendly. You want auto search functionality in ASP.Net Dropdownlist control.

You want one textbox inside dropdown list and when user type something in that textbox dropdown list become searchable and it will display only those records which were matched within textbox without doing any postback.

We can do this using Javascript and JQuery. We are using one JQuery plug-in for that. Plug-in name is "Chosen".

Here is example for ASP.NET Autocomplete DropDown.

In this example we take ASP.Net dropdown control and fill countries name into that, after that when user click on that combobox by default dropdown list is open and on first position you can see the textbox when you type in textbox dropdown list control become search-able and this list if automatically filter.

You can also get selected value in server side code using "SelectedValue" property of comobox. In this example when user click on "GetSelected" button at that time server side button click event called and display selected value in label. You can see that in below output screens.

ASPX Code :
<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="FnacyDropdownlist.aspx.cs" Inherits="FnacyDropdownlist" %>

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <style>
        a img{border: none;}
        ol li{list-style: decimal outside;}
        div#container{width: 780px;margin: 0 auto;padding: 1em 0;}
        div.side-by-side{width: 100%;margin-bottom: 1em;}
        div.side-by-side > div{float: left;width: 50%;}
        div.side-by-side > div > em{margin-bottom: 10px;display: block;}
        .clearfix:after{content: "\0020";display: block;height: 0;clear: both;overflow: hidden;visibility: hidden;}
        
    </style>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="Style/chosen.css" />
</head>
<body>
    <form runat="server" id="form1">
        <div id="container">
            <h2>Selected Value :
                <asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblSelectedValue" Style="color: red"></asp:Label></h2>
            <div class="side-by-side clearfix">

                <div>

                    <asp:DropDownList data-placeholder="Choose a Country..." runat="server" ID="cboCountry" class="chzn-select" Style="width: 350px;">
                        <asp:ListItem Text="" Value=""></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="United States" Value="United States"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="United Kingdom" Value="United Kingdom"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Albania" Value="Albania"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Algeria" Value="Algeria"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Angola" Value="Angola"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Bahamas" Value="Bahamas">Bahamas</asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Bahrain" Value="Bahrain"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Brazil" Value="Brazil"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Czech Republic" Value="Czech Republic"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Denmark" Value="Denmark"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Djibouti" Value="Djibouti"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Dominica" Value="Dominica"></asp:ListItem>
                        <asp:ListItem Text="Dominican Republic" Value="Dominican Republic"></asp:ListItem>

                    </asp:DropDownList><asp:Button runat="server" ID="btnSelect" Text="Get Selected" OnClick="btnSelect_Click" />

                </div>
            </div>

        </div>
        <script src="Scripts/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
        <script src="Scripts/chosen.jquery.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript"> $(".chzn-select").chosen(); $(".chzn-select-deselect").chosen({ allow_single_deselect: true }); </script>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

C#. Net Example :
    protected void btnSelect_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        lblSelectedValue.Text = cboCountry.SelectedValue;
        
    }

Output (Default Screen) : 

Auto Search Functionality in ASP.Net Dropdownlist control
(To view original image , click on image)


Output (Auto search screen) : 

Auto Search Functionality in ASP.Net Dropdownlist control
(To view original image , click on image)

Output (Selected Value Screen) :  

Auto Search Functionality in ASP.Net Dropdownlist control
(To view original image , click on image)
 

You can download complete running source code from above link.

Note : There are other lots of functionality of this "Chosen" plug-in. We will post those functionality in next
blogs.

33 comments:

  1. This was a perfect solution i was looking for...Thanks for sharing dude ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. LINK FOR DOWNLOAD DOESNT WORK

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      Thanks for you comment. If first link is not work for you then go to second link of download. This link is also working.

      Delete
  3. hi, it's a nice control. but please tell me how to make the SelectedIndex_Changed even for this DDL, instead of the button click event. Right now the Index Changed event is not getting fired. Many thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Had you set AutoPostBack property to True ?

      Delete
  4. Hi,
    Changing the data source for the drop down breaks the auto complete, any idea how to fix that will help a lot.Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      In code where you set data source to drop down ?

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi.. I put your Dropdownlist inside UpdatePanel. But, when i Click a button (inside the same updatepanel) Dropdownlist not working properly.
    How to make Dropdownlist working? Please help.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For update panel you need to make changes, you can find on net how to work with JQuery in update panel.

      Delete
  7. Great article but i want to fire dropdownselectedindex event when we select the vaule have you any idea how to do it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you need to handle server side request using JQuery and JSON, that will solve your problem and also enhance user experiance.

      Delete
  8. hi,
    In this dropdownlist is not in editable mode.
    How to edit text in this DDL?
    please tell me how to edit text in this.................

    ReplyDelete
  9. In this dropdownlist is not working in Content page(master page)....
    i need solutions..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  10. maam i am also facing this problem do you have solution for this...please tell me

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Use Below Code With Update Panel It's Working For Me Also Work with SelectedIndex Change Event

    function pageLoad() {
    $(".chzn-select").chosen(); $(".chzn-select-deselect").chosen({ allow_single_deselect: true });
    }

    ReplyDelete
  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Refer below Link For More Details about chosen plugin...

    https://harvesthq.github.io/chosen/

    ReplyDelete
  16. you can also set css class for particular selected item Add below css class in css file
    .chzn-container .chzn-results .result-selected {
    background-color: #3875d7;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#3875d7', endColorstr='#2a62bc', GradientType=0 );
    background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0 0, 0 100%, color-stop(20%, #3875d7), color-stop(90%, #2a62bc));
    background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #3875d7 20%, #2a62bc 90%);
    background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #3875d7 20%, #2a62bc 90%);
    background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #3875d7 20%, #2a62bc 90%);
    background-image: linear-gradient(#3875d7 20%, #2a62bc 90%);
    color: #fff;
    }

    ReplyDelete
  17. If you want you can see shieldui combobox whit autocomplete
    https://demos.shieldui.com/aspnet/combobox/auto-complete

    ReplyDelete
  18. I am getting the data from web services using ajax but it is not listing, however when i used predefined list of child option () then it is display. Why?
    What is wrong in my code?

    ReplyDelete
  19. when this dropdownlist used in update panel style get lost ,when ever selected index changed. please suggest what can i do for this

    ReplyDelete
  20. Iam getting responsive issues after setting autopostback to 'true'
    Anyone knows the solution.Iam also using update panel

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi, did you test it with internet explorer, the styling and search not working. Regards

    ReplyDelete
  22. It is not work master + content form + update panel asp.net case if i want to give data source on any another combobox selection change event.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Amazing work Done.. really helpful for me.. Thank you

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete