Hi Mike,

Here is my situation. The combo box is filled with contact names, and if the user types is a name in the combo and the name doesn't exist in the list then I want them to be able to click a button to create a contact record.

What I would like is the type ahead feature so they can go through the list by typing, but I also don't want them to be able type in a name that doesn't exist in the combo. I tried setting DropDownStyle to DropDownList but the type ahead feature doesn't work then.

It would be great if as they typed and a match wasn't found in the list then the key stroke is cancelled that way they could only key in items that exist is the list.

I hope that is clearer.

If I can't get it to work that way then I will just remove the LimitToList and do a check to see if the item exists in the list.

Thanks for your help.

Kris

 Hi Kris,

    It sounds like you could do what you want by using the ItemNotInList event and prompting the user with a MessageBox or another dialog to allow them to create the new contact record.

    Another option would be to use add a button the Combo itself using ButtonsRight or ButtonsLeft. A user could click this button without losing focus on the control, so the LimitToList would not be a problem.

    BTW, if you set DropDownStyle to DropDownList, the user can still type into the combo and find a match. The searching works a little differently by default, though. It only searches the first character. But you can change this by setting AutoComplete or AutoEdit (I forget which) to true.  

HI Mike,

I can use this event to accomplish what I want. I did try setting the DropDownStyle to DropDownList and setting AutoEdit to true but that didn't give me the type ahead functinality that I want. It is still just going to the first letter of value in the list.

BTW, is there a way to kill the last key stock received in this event? So it would stop the type ahead until it found the next set of matching data.

Thanks,

Kris

You can only stop a key from reaching the control using the KeyDown or maybe KeyPress events. You could trap one of these events and then use the IsItemInList method to check for the existance of an item on the list yourself, without using LimitToList. That's another option.  

Hi Mike,

Here is what I did. I couldn't get exactly what I wanted but I can live with what I got.

I set the LimitToList property to true and in the ItemNotInList event of my control I set the e.RetainFocus = false and I disable the button that I don't want the user to click if there hasn't been a valid selection in the combo.

Here is what I really wanted. Say my combo has these three entries: [Smith, Kris] [Smith, Jake] [Parker, Mike] I have the LimitToList set to true. I start typing:

Sm displays Smith, Kris

Smo displays Smith, Kris

The o key stroke is cancelled and the item doesn't change but stays on the last valid selection. I tried using the KeyDown and KeyUp events and I could get close but not exactly. One of the problems I was having I could get the last valid entry in the KeyDown but in the KeyUp I could only set the text value to the complete text with no highlighting so when I would start to type again it would be at the very end of the valid string.

If my above example gives you a better understanding of what I am trying to accomplish and you have a way to create this type of behavior I would love to know how.

Thanks for all your help.

Kris

    Well, most things that you override on the UltraCombo are not going to affect the grid. As I beleive I said somewhere earlier in this thread (or maybe it was another thread), the grid does not use the Control you assign as the EditorControl of a column or cell.  The control simply provides a copy of it's internal editor. So if you are trapping Key event on your derived UltraCombo, these will not have any effect on the grid. The grid has it's own key events. 

    You cannot access the grid cell from the UltraCombo, because the UltraCombo knows nothing about the grid.

    There is one small exception to this, and that is the EditorButton events. These will fire on the control, because the grid doesn't have corresponding events for them.  

Thanks for the response Mike. How then do I access the cell properties of the containing grid from the UltraCombo? FWIW, I have sub-classed (derived) the UltraCombo into a custom version to handle some "unique" requirements. Since the custom control will be used many, many times, I would like to abstract as much functionality as possible away from the containing grid and into the control.

Yes, thet certainly does matter. The grid does not use the actual control on the form. The Control just provides an editor to the grid. But if you are using a grid, you should just be using the properties of the cell, you don't have to deal with the TextBox.  

I also have a similar need as the users in the previous posts. The SelectedText, SelectionLength and SelectionStart properties are not part of the UltraCombo class directly, but are available from the TextBox control within UltraCombo. In my testing, I could not get values for these, despite the text in the control being partially selected. Might it matter that the control is embedded in a grid (as the EditorControl for a column in a WinGrid)? Thanks.

Michal Kozlowski said:

where do I find these properties frim the UltraCombo class

Which properties? SelectionStart and SelectionLength should be right on the control.