Showing a value (instead of label) on a Material UI Autocomplete - reactjs

Question

So I have an async combo box that pulls options from an API. The options are just an Id and a description. This component is part of a form that I'm showing to add or edit data. What I'd like to see happen is have the option be empty when adding new data and to have the current value selected when editing. Instead, it simply shows the label.
This is my code that's almost a copypaste of the example from the docs.
export default function AsyncAutoComplete(props:AsyncAutoCompleteProps) {
const [open, setOpen] = React.useState(false);
const [options, setOptions] = React.useState<EntityWithIdAndDescription[]>([]);
const loading = open && options.length === 0;
React.useEffect(() => {
let active = true;
if (!loading) {
return undefined;
}
(async () => {
props.populateWith().then((options)=> {
if (active) {
setOptions(options);
}})
})();
return () => {
active = false;
};
}, [loading]);
React.useEffect(() => {
if (!open) {
setOptions([]);
}
}, [open]);
return (
<Autocomplete
id="async-autocomplete"
open={open}
onOpen={() => {
setOpen(true);
}}
onClose={() => {
setOpen(false);
}}
onChange={props.onChange}
getOptionSelected={(option, value) => option.id === value.id}
getOptionLabel={(option) => option.description}
options={options}
loading={loading}
renderInput={(params) => (
<TextField
{...params}
label={props.label}
variant="outlined"
margin="dense"
InputProps={{
...params.InputProps,
endAdornment: (
<React.Fragment>
{loading ? <CircularProgress color="inherit" size={20} /> : null}
{params.InputProps.endAdornment}
</React.Fragment>
),
}}
/>
)}
/>
);
What I want is to pass an Id value to this component and have it show the description for that value as the selected option (after making the API call). Using defaultValue doesn't seem to work.
Any advice with either modifying this or taking a different approach would be helpful.

Answer 1

Looks like what you're after is a controlled component. There's an example of this in Material UI's Autocomplete demo under Playground called controlled.
I'm not sure how you're getting the id of the initial value you want to pass to the component to show that it's selected. It could be something like the following.
Create a separate state for the value you select from this Autocomplete in your parent component. In fact, I would not have a separate component called AsyncAutocomplete at all. This is so you control all your state in the parent component and the Autocomplete component becomes purely presentational.
After your API call is complete and the setOptions(options) is called, call setValue with the value that you would like to show selected. This must be of type EntityWithIdAndDescription.
Create an inline-function for the onChange prop of the Autocomplete component which takes a the second parameter as the EntityWithIdAndDescription | null type. This is what's required from Autocomplete's onChange. Call setValue with this parameter as the argument.
Pass options, value, onChange and loading as props into the Autocomplete component. The additional props I've passed over and above what you've done in your code are:
<Autocomplete
...
disabled={loading}
value={value}
...
/>
Let me know how you go
const [value, setValue] = useState<EntityWithIdAndDescription | null>(null); // (1)
const [options, setOptions] = useState<EntityWithIdAndDescription[]>([]);
const loading = options.length === 0;
useEffect(() => {
populateWith().then((options)=> {
setOptions(options);
})
// (2)
setValue({
id: "something",
description: "something",
})
return () => {};
}, []);
// (4)
<Autocomplete
id="async-autocomplete"
disabled={loading}
onChange={(event: any, newValue: EntityWithIdAndDescription | null) => {
setValue(newValue); // (3)
}}
getOptionSelected={(option, value) => option.id === value.id}
getOptionLabel={(option) => option.description}
options={options}
loading={loading}
value={value}
renderInput={(params) => (
<TextField
{...params}
label={"My Entities"}
variant="outlined"
margin="dense"
InputProps={{
...params.InputProps,
endAdornment: (
<React.Fragment>
{loading ? <CircularProgress color="inherit" size={20} /> : null}
{params.InputProps.endAdornment}
</React.Fragment>
),
}}
/>
)}
/>
);
Code Sandbox
Here's an example with the Autocomplete in a separate component I called MyAutocomplete. It includes an API call and setting a value I want to be selected first.
https://codesandbox.io/s/autumn-silence-lkjrf