First Step: Reference the js links to your page
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css">
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.js"></script>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/resources/demos/style.css">
Second Step : Add css and scripts to your page to do autocomplete
<style>
.custom-combobox {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
}
.custom-combobox-toggle {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
margin-left: -1px;
padding: 0;
/* support: IE7 */
*height: 1.7em;
*top: 0.1em;
}
.custom-combobox-input {
margin: 0;
padding: 0.3em;
}
.ui-state-default, .ui-autocomplete
{
background-image:none !important;
background-color:White !important;
font-family:"open Sans" !important;
font-weight:400 !important;
font-size:1rem !important;
}
</style>
<script>
(function ($) {
$.widget("custom.combobox", {
_create: function () {
this.wrapper = $("<span>")
.addClass("custom-combobox")
.insertAfter(this.element);
this.element.hide();
this._createAutocomplete();
this._createShowAllButton();
},
_createAutocomplete: function () {
var selected = this.element.children(":selected"),
value = selected.val() ? selected.text() : "";
this.input = $("<input>")
.appendTo(this.wrapper)
.val(value)
.attr("title", "")
.addClass("custom-combobox-input ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-state-default ui-corner-left")
.autocomplete({
delay: 0,
minLength: 0,
source: $.proxy(this, "_source")
})
.tooltip({
tooltipClass: "ui-state-highlight"
});
this._on(this.input, {
autocompleteselect: function (event, ui) {
ui.item.option.selected = true;
this._trigger("select", event, {
item: ui.item.option
});
// __doPostBack('<%= combobox.UniqueID %>', '');
},
autocompletechange: "_removeIfInvalid"
});
},
_createShowAllButton: function () {
var input = this.input,
wasOpen = false;
$("<a>")
.attr("tabIndex", -1)
//.attr("title", "Show All Items")
.tooltip()
.appendTo(this.wrapper)
.button({
icons: {
primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s"
},
text: false
})
.removeClass("ui-corner-all")
.addClass("custom-combobox-toggle ui-corner-right")
.mousedown(function () {
wasOpen = input.autocomplete("widget").is(":visible");
})
.click(function () {
input.focus();
// Close if already visible
if (wasOpen) {
return;
}
// Pass empty string as value to search for, displaying all results
input.autocomplete("search", "");
});
},
_source: function (request, response) {
var matcher = new RegExp($.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(request.term), "i");
response(this.element.children("option").map(function () {
var text = $(this).text();
if (this.value && (!request.term || matcher.test(text)))
return {
label: text,
value: text,
option: this
};
}));
},
_removeIfInvalid: function (event, ui) {
// Selected an item, nothing to do
if (ui.item) {
return;
}
// Search for a match (case-insensitive)
var value = this.input.val(),
valueLowerCase = value.toLowerCase(),
valid = false;
this.element.children("option").each(function () {
if ($(this).text().toLowerCase() === valueLowerCase) {
this.selected = valid = true;
return false;
}
});
// Found a match, nothing to do
if (valid) {
return;
}
// Remove invalid value
this.input
.val("")
.attr("title", value + " didn't match any item")
.tooltip("open");
this.element.val("");
this._delay(function () {
this.input.tooltip("close").attr("title", "");
}, 2500);
this.input.data("ui-autocomplete").term = "";
},
_destroy: function () {
this.wrapper.remove();
this.element.show();
}
});
})(jQuery);
$(function () {
$("#combobox").combobox();
$(".custom-combobox-input").click(function () {
$(".custom-combobox-input").val("");
});
});
</script>
Third Step : You have create drop down control. The dropdown control should be present inside the div with class 'ui-widget'
<div class="ui-widget">
<asp:DropDownList ID="combobox" runat="server" ClientIDMode="Static" CssClass="text input">
</asp:DropDownList>
</div>
In the above code i don't have selectedIndexChanged event for dropdown. There may be 2 scenarios we have here.
Option 1: Select item from drop down, then click the button to get the data. For this case you just copy the above script. This will work drop down with autocomplete functionality
Option 2: Select item from drop down, on selectionIndexchanged there may be some fucntionality to do. For this case you just need to uncomment the code
__doPostBack('<%= combobox.UniqueID %>', ''); in 'autocompleteselect' in jquery. Then write
selectionIndexchanged event for your drop down control.
<asp:DropDownList ID="combobox" runat="server" ClientIDMode="Static" CssClass="text input" OnSelectedIndexChanged="ddlEmployee_SelectedIndexChanged" AutoPostBack="true">
</asp:DropDownList>