ASP.NET

This morning, I had the chance to play around with another ASP.NET AJAX control:  the CascadingDropDown control.  Like the name implies, it's a nifty little AJAX-enabled control that dynamically enables and populates a DropDownList based on the value selected in a previous list.  Kinda like the coding version of those old skool "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.

You've seen this kind of thing in action plenty of times, I'm sure.  Remember the last time you filled out a registration form that had you pick a country, then you suddenly had a "State/Province" list that only included regions within that country?  Well, this is Microsoft's implementation.  Check it out:  http://www.asp.net/AJAX/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/CascadingDropDown/CascadingDropDown.aspx

As with most of the ASP.NET AJAX stuff, there's also a great "How Do I..." video (http://www.asp.net/learn/ajax-videos/video-77.aspx) from Joe Stagner (http://www.joeon.net).  Thing is, though, that the video uses an XML file for its data source.  Not real helpful for me, seeing that my data was coming from an actual SQL database. 

Intro

From time to time, I get the chance to take off the "database guy" hat I usually wear around the office and pretend I'm a developer.  A good deal of that coding involves some sort of web-based tool or another so, being a Microsoft shop, I figured it was time for me to get up to speed on their implementation of AJAX.  For the last couple of weeks, I've been playing around with the AJAX Control Toolkit for ASP.NET (http://www.asp.net/ajax/) and today had the chance to put one of those controls (the AutoComplete extender) to work.

I needed to create a web-based company address/phone book to throw on our intranet site.  We've nearly doubled the number of employees on the payroll over the past several months, and with everybody spread across about a dozen or so field offices, it can be a pain finding somebody when you need them, especially when you don't know their full name.  If only there was some way to allow users to type in the parts they knew and dynamically generate a list of users with names that fit that criteria...  something that might automatically complete their search string...

In case you don't know (or know it by some other name, if you're a non-Microsoft person), the AutoComplete extender attaches to a TextBox control and, as the user begins to type, gives a list of suggestions he can click if he's too lazy to type in the whole phrase.  You've seen it in the Google toolbar, etc.  Pretty damn handy tool, if you ask me.  You can see a sample of it (along with a list of properties) at http://www.asp.net/AJAX/AjaxControlToolkit/Samples/AutoComplete/AutoComplete.aspx.