Dropdown boxes solve a lot of data entry problems. They ensure that the data that is being entered on a form come from a controlled source. From a UI developer’s perspective, its input that you don’t have to validate. But what happens if you need to fill the dropdown box with hundreds (if not thousands) of selections. If you’ve ever tried to do this, you will know that this will slow down your page tremendously, and if your users are on a slow connection – then forget it. You will be hunted down, chopped up, and burned on a stick (if they had their way)
An elegant solution to this dilemma is to force the user to start typing the first few letters of the item that they are selecting. Your application should then be smart enough to take those initial letters, filter the selection, and then return the matching records as a list that the user can choose from. This can be achieved with AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) AJAX is not a new technology. It’s a compilation of old technologies packaged up into a new coding technique. You can read up more about it from this other article . My article will show you how to use AJAX to create a control that you can use to solve the dilemma we explained above.
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