Need some help with dropdownlist inside a repeater

Hi all,

I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction on this. I have a drop down list inside a repeater on a screen. I have no problems populating the list with all of the options at the time of binding. Everything works out fine EXCEPT the load time.

All of the options are there so it's fine. But my users would like me to fill the drop down list with the values at the time they click on the drop down list.

The repeater itself is inside an AJAX Update panel.

So I am trying to figure out how would I fill the drop down list with the actual values when they click on the drop down list inside the repeater inside the update panel?

Does this make sense?

Thanks,
J

Ok, let me see if I understand you...

What you are saying is that initially you want there to be no items in the DDL, and for the items to only appear when they click on the DDL?

Is that right?

Gary

Hi Gary,

That's right :) Or perhaps the word "Select" in the drop down, which I can easily populate at the time of binding.

Thanks,
J

Okay, I am going to throw another suggestion out there...

How about an AutoComplete TextBox:

http://www.asp.net/ajaxlibrary/AjaxC...ocomplete.aspx

Gary

Hi Gary,

The problem I run into when trying to use the AJAX toolkit in some circumstances is that I get errors that popup asking me if I want to stop running a script because it will make IE unstable. I notice this happens when I have a significant amount of data within the repeater using the ajax controls. In this case, every record in the repeater would have the script running against it and would constantly popup that message in the browser. SO it's not really an option :(

J

How about using jQuery, rather than the controls from the AJAX Control Toolkit:

http://jqueryui.com/demos/autocomplete/

Gary

Hi Gary,

I have no problem using jquery if I can get it to work. I've never worked with it, but I'm open to whatever works.

The problem I am having is two fold, although I think I worked one of them out.

1) Which drop down list am I using?
I think I actually have this one set, as I am able to pass the control name to the javascript function so at least I know what I am dealing with. I am also passing the reference number that I have to relate the drop down list to so at least those things are ok

2) How do I get the dropdown list values from the DB?
I know I should probably be using an ASMX page to do the work, but I'm not sure how these work as I haven't used them before. I even hve the asmx working to get the data that I need, but the piecing together is what's hanging me up.

This is like doing a jigsaw puzzle, I have the picture, I have the pieces, but I need a few pieces that will allow me to get that AHA moment :)

Thanks,
J