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Getting Started with ASP.NET MVC AutoComplete Control

16 Feb 20265 minutes to read

This section briefly explains how to include the ASP.NET MVC AutoComplete control in an ASP.NET MVC application using Visual Studio.

Prerequisites

System requirements for ASP.NET MVC controls

Create ASP.NET MVC application with HTML helper

Install ASP.NET MVC package in the application

To add ASP.NET MVC controls in the application, open the NuGet package manager in Visual Studio (Tools → NuGet Package Manager → Manage NuGet Packages for Solution), search for Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 and then install it.

Install-Package Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 -Version 33.1.44

NOTE

Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC controls are available in nuget.org. Refer to NuGet packages topic to learn more about installing NuGet packages in various OS environments. The Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 NuGet package has dependencies, Newtonsoft.Json for JSON serialization and Syncfusion.Licensing for validating Syncfusion® license key.

Add namespace

Add Syncfusion.EJ2 namespace reference in Web.config under Views folder.

<namespaces>
    <add namespace="Syncfusion.EJ2"/>
</namespaces>

Add stylesheet and script resources

Here, the theme and script are referenced using CDN inside the <head> of ~/Pages/Shared/_Layout.cshtml file as follows:

<head>
    ...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls styles -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/33.1.44/fluent.css" />
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls scripts -->
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/33.1.44/dist/ej2.min.js"></script>
</head>

NOTE

Checkout the Themes topic to learn different ways (CDN, NPM package, and CRG) to refer styles in ASP.NET MVC application, and to have the expected appearance for Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC controls. Checkout the Adding Script Reference topic to learn different approaches for adding script references in your ASP.NET MVC application.

Register Syncfusion® script manager

Also, register the script manager EJS().ScriptManager() at the end of <body> in the ~/Pages/Shared/_Layout.cshtml file as follows.

<body>
...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Script Manager -->
    @Html.EJS().ScriptManager()
</body>

Add ASP.NET MVC AutoComplete control

Now, add the Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC AutoComplete control in ~/Home/Index.cshtml page.

@model List<string>

@Html.EJS().AutoComplete("games").DataSource(Model).Render()
public ActionResult Index()
{
    List<string> data = new List<string>() { "Badminton", "Basketball", "Cricket", "Football", "Golf", "Gymnastics", "Hockey", "Tennis" };
    return View(data);
}

Press Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or ⌘+F5 (macOS) to run the app. Then, the Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC AutoComplete control will be rendered in the default web browser.

ASP.NET MVC AutoComplete Control

NOTE

Running the above code will display the basic AutoComplete on the browser.

Binding data source

After initialization, populate the AutoComplete with data using the dataSource property. Here, an array of string values is passed to the AutoComplete control.

@model List<string>

@Html.EJS().AutoComplete("games").Placeholder("Select a game").DataSource((IEnumerable<object>)Model).Render()
public ActionResult Index()
{
    List<string> data = new List<string>() { "Badminton", "Basketball", "Cricket", "Football", "Golf", "Gymnastics", "Hockey", "Tennis" };
    return View(data);
}

Custom values

The AutoComplete allows users to enter custom values that are not present in the predefined set of values. By default, this support is enabled by the allowCustom property. The custom value will be sent to the post back handler when a form is submitted.

@model List<string>

@Html.EJS().AutoComplete("games").AllowCustom(true).Placeholder("Select a game").DataSource((IEnumerable<object>)Model).Render()
public ActionResult Index()
{
    List<string> data = new List<string>() { "Badminton", "Basketball", "Cricket", "Football", "Golf", "Gymnastics", "Hockey", "Tennis" };
    return View(data);
}

Configure the suggestion list

By default, the suggestion list width automatically adjusts according to the AutoComplete input element’s width, and the height of the suggestion list is ‘300px’.

The height and width of the popup list can also be customized using the popupHeight and popupWidth properties respectively.

In the following sample, the suggestion list’s width and height are configured.

@model List<string>

@Html.EJS().AutoComplete("games").Placeholder("Select a game").PopupWidth("300px").PopupHeight("200px").DataSource((IEnumerable<object>)Model).Render()
public ActionResult Index()
{
    List<string> data = new List<string>() { "Badminton", "Basketball", "Cricket", "Football", "Golf", "Gymnastics", "Hockey", "Tennis" };
    return View(data);
}

NOTE

View Sample in GitHub.

See also