jQuery Autocomplete losing text on AutoPostBack

Question

I have a jQuery Autocomplete field on an ASP.Net Webform and everything has been working great until now. I also have a DropDownList that I have a need to fire onSelectedIndexChanged with AutoPostBack.

When I changed my code to do the AutoPostBack, the text field that has the jQuery AutoComplete on it comes back blank. However, if I look at the source of the page, the text is in the text field. If I now post the form, the page will send back a blank field. My Google-Fu is weak on this one, as I could not come up with any workaround for it.

Has anyone had any issues like this with the Autocomplete field getting blanked out on an AutoPostBack, and how did you get around it?

I can post code if it's really necessary, but I'd need to sanitize a lot of it before I could due to company policy.

Yes, I do. (Went back and checked just to be sure, but it's only the Autocomplete box that is getting blanked. Every other field is fine.) — Moose, May 05 '09 at 22:44

Jon Erickson · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-06T06:25:42.997

1

How is the autocomplete field being initialized? Is it being set to empty string either on page load from server or by the autocomplete jQuery plugin on document.ready?

If the source code for the plug-in is setting the textbox to empty string on document.ready then try the following:

// Store current textbox value in a var
var temp = $('#mytextbox').val();

// Initialize the autocomplete plugin (winging it on the syntax)
$('#mytextbox').autocomplete();

// Reset the value of the textbox.
$('#mytextbox').val(temp);

edited May 06 '09 at 06:25

answered May 05 '09 at 23:53

Jon Erickson

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I am thinking it is getting set to an empty string by the plugin in the document.ready. I don't have the code in front of me but I'm pretty sure there isn't anything in the page load that is setting it back. I don't remember seeing anything in the autocomplete docs about initializing the field. – Moose May 06 '09 at 00:24
that is what I'm thinking, take a look through the plug-in's source code if you can. – Jon Erickson May 06 '09 at 06:21
if that is the case then try the above javascript/jquery code that I edited into my post. – Jon Erickson May 06 '09 at 06:26
I passed on looking through the source code for the autocomplete plug-in as my javascript skills are not the greatest. (Probably why I'm having trouble with this in the first place.) Your fix did work, but it feels a little greasy. :-) I'm marking it as the answer, since it is a fix, and it lets me move on with this page. Thanks! – Moose May 06 '09 at 13:04

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 31 '10 at 19:42

If you use jQuery Autocomplete plugin 1.1, * Revision: $Id: jquery.autocomplete.js 15 2009-08-22 10:30:27Z joern.zaefferer $

Add "autoPostBackSelection: false," in the options Ex:

$.Autocompleter.defaults = {
    inputClass: "ac_input",
    resultsClass: "ac_results",
    loadingClass: "ac_loading",
    minChars: 1,
    delay: 400,
    autoPostBackSelection: false,
    ...

After, add this just before the "return true; at the end of the "selectCurrent() function.

if (options.autoPostBackSelection == true) {
        __doPostBack($input.id, "");
      }

Example:

function selectCurrent() { ... if (options.autoPostBackSelection == true) { __doPostBack($input.id, ""); } return true; }

jQuery Autocomplete losing text on AutoPostBack

2 Answers2