how to bind autocomplete box to a database table column? - silverlight

Question

i am currently creating a Gridview using telerik control which displays data from the sql database which i displays through domain datasource used in wcf ria.(ADO.net entity model etc)
i want to add an autocomplete box above my radgrid where i type an name and other matchable entries are also listed.
when i click on the entry then radgrid may display whole row containing that name.
i am using silverlight 4,wcf ria,telerik controls.
please provide a sample coding idea in xaml and xaml.cs.
i tries to access telerik demos but they are not running on my system.

Answer 1

As an example... say you have a list of Customers, of which you want to display their names in your AutoComplete box. Further, your Grid should display all customers, and when a Name is selected in the AutoComplete box, the Selected item of the grid displays.
What you need to do is bind the SelectedItem property of the RadGridView & AutoCompleteBox. What I would do is bind the AutoCompleteBox to a property named SelectedName, like so:
<input:AutoCompleteBox ItemsSource="{Binding Names}" SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedName, Mode=TwoWay}" />
Emphasis on the 'Mode=TwoWay' - this is what will alert your code behind that the UI has changed.
In your code behind, you would create properties like this:
private string selectedName;
public string SelectedName
{
get { return selectedName; }
set
{
if (value != null)
{
var query = (from c in CustomersList
where (c.Name == value)
select c).FirstOrDefault();
SelectedCustomer = (Customer)query;
selectedName = value;
}
}
}
Notice how, when you're setting the SelectedName, you're using LINQ to determine which of the customers were selected. One pitfall here would be if you have multiple names in a list... this code only selects the first. If this is an issue, you probably should rethink your architecture..
Then for your grid, you would bind the SelectedItem like so:
<telerik:RadGridView
....
SelectedItem={Binding SelectedCustomer, Mode=TwoWay"}
....
</telerik:RadGridView>
In your code behind, you'd create this property:
private Customers selectedCustomer;
public Customers SelectedCustomer
{
get { return selectedCustomer; }
set {
selectedCustomer = value;
MyGridView.SelectedItem = selectedCustomer;
}
}
Something like that should get you started.
SS