Auto open DropListBox

[Jeremy Whilde]

Is there any way to open a dialog with a Drop ListBox already open so when users type it will start narrowing the open list? I know you can set the focus with the Tab order so that the box has focus and will start active, but how do/can you do the equivalent of clicking the dropdown? Thought DialogControlSet may help in a callback but can only seem to set the default selection and text colour but cannot seem to open the list, can this be done?

Thanks JW

[JTaylor]

Not that I am aware of unless you start playing around with Mouse stuff.   If you want an open list I would consider the ItemListBox idea.    Sounds like you are trying to use a DropList like an ItemList anyway.

Jim

[Jeremy Whilde]

Not that I am aware of unless you start playing around with Mouse stuff.   If you want an open list I would consider the ItemListBox idea.    Sounds like you are trying to use a DropList like an ItemList anyway.

Jim

Sort of the customer likes the dropdown everything in one list and one window and they can have a small window if the sub category in the list has only a few items <10 and then a larger window if there are 50+ items in the subcatagory . Will look at the listbox and editbox idea and see what it comes out like, is there any example code available?

Thanks JW

[JTaylor]

Not sure if I have sample code split out from production code or not.  Might be something the in the Tech Database.   I have to take off now or would put something together.   When I return, if you haven't found anything, I'll see what I can do. 

Also, you can still resize your Dialog like you are doing now.

Jim

[Jeremy Whilde]

Jim

OK appreciate your help and suggestions, don't think I have seen anything in the database but haven't looked directly for the combination of listbox & edit box so will have a look.

Thanks JW

[JTaylor]

Hopefully this will be helpful.

Jim

[td]

This is crude when compared to Jim's example and is also much more data dependent but it illustrates another approach.  The basic idea is to narrow a data search using a pre-built index.  In the example data is extracted from a larger file and the  index is created on the fly to make it 'copy-and-pasteable' from the forum.  These tasks could be done before hand and the dialog script would then only need to load the data and keys from files.

Code (winbatch) Select Expand

;;============================================================
;; Data dependent processing of a flat file containing
;; known items already is sort order.
;;
;; This example uses a one character key array but the length
;; can be adjusted to match the data for  best performance.

aRaw     = ArrayFileGet( DirHome():"wil.aqh" )
nMaxRaw  = ArrInfo(aRaw, 1) -1
nMaxData = nMaxRaw/3
aData    = ArrDimension(nMaxData+1)
aKey     = ArrDimension(27,2)

;; Set first key array element
aKey[0,0] = StrUpper(StrSub(aRaw[0],1,1))
aKey[0,1] = 0
nMaxKey   = 0
nIndex    = 0

;; Extract the sorted data from the raw input file
;; and build a first character key array based
;; on the extracted data.
for i = 0 to nMaxRaw by 3
   aData[nIndex] = aRaw[i]
   strFirst = StrUpper(StrSub(aData[nIndex],1,1))
   if strFirst != aKey[nMaxKey,0]
      nMaxKey += 1
      aKey[nMaxKey,0] = strFirst
      aKey[nMaxKey,1] = nIndex
   endif
   nIndex += 1
next

; End of data key row.
nMaxKey += 1
aKey[nMaxKey, 0] = '['  ; First character past 'Z' (maintains sort order for searching)
aKey[nMaxKey, 1] = nMaxData

if nMaxKey < 26 then ArrayRedim(aKey, nMaxKey+1, 2) ; Remove blank elements to aid binary searching.

;; Initialize the ITEMBOX Variable.
ibVariable1 = ArrayItemize(aData)

;; Callback that implements a kind of autocomplete functionality.
#DefineSubroutine AutoComExCb(AutoComEx_Handle,AutoComEx_Event,AutoComEx_Name,AutoComEx_EventInfo,AutoComEx_ChangeInfo)
switch AutoComEx_Event                                   ; Switch based on Dialog Message type
case @deInit                                          ; Standard Initialization message
   DialogProcOptions(AutoComEx_Handle,@deEdText,@TRUE)
   DialogProcOptions(AutoComEx_Handle,@deIbSelect,@TRUE)
   return(@retDefault)

case @deEdText                                        ; ID "EditBox_1"  ebVariable1 Edit 1

    strUser = StrTrim(DialogControlGet(AutoComEx_Handle, "EditBox_1",  @dcText))

   ;; Find the starting and ending data array indices.
   nKey = Arraysearch(aKey,StrUpper(StrSub(strUser,1,1)),@Stringsort)
   if nKey >= 0  && nKey < nMaxKey
      nUser  = StrLen(strUser)
      nLast  = aKey[nKey+1, 1] - 1

      ;; Find the first data array element that matches to the end of the user input.
      for i = aKey[nKey, 1] to nLast
         if Stricmp(strUser, StrSub(aData[i], 1, nUser)) == 0
            ;; Scroll the first matching data element to the top of the ITEMBOX.
            ;; Many other things could be done here.  For example, displaying
            ;; only matching items and resizing to match the number of items
            ;; in the partial list.
            DialogControlSet(AutoComEx_Handle, "ItemBox_1",  @dcScroll, i+1)
            break
         endif
      next
   endif
   return(@retDefault)

case @deIbSelect                                      ; ID "ItemBox_1"  ibVariable1
   ; Process selection here.
   return(@retDefault)

endswitch                                             ; AutoComEx_Event
return(@retDefault)
#EndSubroutine                                        ; End of Dialog Callback AutoComExCallbackProc


AutoComExFormat=`WWWDLGED,6.2`

AutoComExCaption=`AutoCompleteEx`
AutoComExX=181
AutoComExY=126
AutoComExWidth=210
AutoComExHeight=160
AutoComExNumControls=004
AutoComExProcedure=`AutoComExCb`
AutoComExFont=`DEFAULT`
AutoComExTextColor=`DEFAULT`
AutoComExBackground=`DEFAULT,DEFAULT`
AutoComExConfig=0

AutoComEx001=`057,145,032,010,PUSHBUTTON,"PushButton_OK",DEFAULT,"OK",1,10,@csDefButton,DEFAULT,DEFAULT,DEFAULT`
AutoComEx002=`133,145,034,010,PUSHBUTTON,"PushButton_Cancel",DEFAULT,"Cancel",0,20,DEFAULT,DEFAULT,DEFAULT,DEFAULT`
AutoComEx003=`095,013,088,122,ITEMBOX,"ItemBox_1",ibVariable1,DEFAULT,DEFAULT,30,DEFAULT,DEFAULT,DEFAULT,DEFAULT`
AutoComEx004=`011,015,066,014,EDITBOX,"EditBox_1",ebVariable1,DEFAULT,DEFAULT,40,DEFAULT,DEFAULT,DEFAULT,DEFAULT`

ButtonPushed=Dialog("AutoComEx")


[td]

Happened to notice a couple of shortcomings in the above script so the script has been updated to correct those problems.