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WSuggestions

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Mark Reeves edited this page Jan 3, 2018 · 8 revisions

WSuggestions is a component which provides suggested but not exclusive input values for an associated field, thereby converting that simple input field into a combo-box control. This component replaces the COMBO type of WDropdown.

When to use WSuggestions

WSuggestions provides non-exclusive suggestions. Therefore it should be used when the user input could be from an existing list but does not have to be. The adding of tags or free-text categories to an item would be examples of this; a user may choose an existing tag but is at liberty to create a new one.

There are some use cases where WSuggestions may be appropriate even if the options are prescriptive. Some examples of these type of scenarios could include those listed below.

  • The options from which the user may choose changes frequently but which have a common format. In this case the type-ahead search nature of WSuggestions will help users access the latest options more quickly and easily than might be available from WDropdown.
  • The options list is extremely long, such as the list of airports in the world. In this case WDropdown would be cumbersome.
  • The options list includes many options which have the same initial characters but differ at the end. In this scenario selecting from a [WDropdown] would be difficult with type-ahead as the select element's type-ahead does not include in-string matching. WSuggestions has in-string matching and client side filtering which can be used to quickly whittle down a long list.

It should be noted. however, that in any scenario where the user is expected to select an option from a fixed list this is not enforced in WSuggestions. Therefore the application will have to include validation to ensure the user input is appropriate and provide timely and appropriate feedback to the user if they have not made a suitable selection.

Components which support WSuggestions

The following input controls may be associated with a WSuggestions component:

Suggestion modes

The suggestions may consist of:

  • a fixed list of values provided at load time;
  • a cachable data list which can be reused and provides significant performance benefits for commonly used lists; or
  • a dynamic list which is seeded by the user's entry into the associated field and which automatically updates as the user types.

Related Components

Further information

Some start pages

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