Configuring an Autocomplete control

Reduce the number of user input errors by providing the users of your application with a list of values from which to choose. The Autocomplete control displays matches from a data source as a drop-down list when the user types one or more characters in the field. For example, in an HR application, you can set up an Autocomplete control with a list of company employees. The HR case worker can search the list by entering the first letters of an employee's name, and then select the correct person from the list of matches generated by the system. Because the case worker is not required to enter the full name of the employee, this approach makes data collection quicker, and produces fewer processing errors.
Before you begin: Add an Autocomplete control to the layout.

For more information, see Adding controls.

  1. Open the view with the control that you want to edit.
    For more information, see Accessing views in your application.
  2. In the configuration pane on the right side of the window, hover over the control, and then click the Edit icon.
  3. In the Property field, select the property whose value the user sets by selecting a match from the Autocomplete control at run time.
  4. In the List source section, select the source for the autocomplete list.
    For more information, see Automating source synchronization in controls.
    For example: To use a data page that contains a list of all employees, in the Type field, select Data page. In the Data page field, select the data page that stores employee information. In this case, the name of the page is D_EmployeeList. Next, in the Data source property field, select .Name to display employee names in the drop-down list.
  5. Optional: Define the format of your control:
    1. To allow the system to suggest most likely choices, select the Display best bets check box.
    2. To arrange results into categories, select the Categorize search results check box, and then indicate the property that you want to use to categorize results.
    3. To render the control as a combination of an editable text box and a drop-down list, on the Presentation tab, select the Display as combo box check box.
    For example: To sort candidate values by location, select the Categorize search results check box. Next, in the Category property field, enter .OfficeLocation. The control now groups the list of employees that match the query according to their location.
  6. Click Apply.