achieving auto-complete - partial success, usability and features

[shula]

I'm using autocomplete in many forms/apps. It saves browsing time, typos, and extra clicks.
Let's explore the options;

1. Toga hasn't got a built-in way to achieve autocomplete AFAIK.
2. On windows it is often done withing a ComboBox.
3. Toga doesn't have it comboboxes.
4. The closest is "selection" box, but it's not dropping down, and is not editable. It's not even a ListBox..

What I did (see screenshot)

A TextInput on top,
a DetailedList directly below.
TextInput.on_change() --> delete existing list items, creates a filtered list, according to the text.
TextInput.on_confirm() --> to capture the first item on the list.

It works.
but there are UI/UX issues I want to fix:

1. There's no way to "confirm" a selected list-item. I want to do something when the user to press ENTER and/or double click on a list item.
2. there's a "on_primary_action()" - but it does does not respond to ENTER, or double-click.
3. I can't assign "Down Arrow" to the textInput, to change focus. Tab key does that, but regular users don't know "tab" .
4. I suspect this re-writing the items has time penalty, when the data grows.
5. the auto-complete options widget is constantly visible. I want to open it only when it's relevant.

Is there a solution to either points?

[mhsmith]

There's no way to "confirm" a selected list-item. I want to do something when the user to press ENTER and/or double click on a list item.

DetailedList currently looks like a table on Windows, but that may change in the future. So if you want it to look like a table, you should use the Table widget instead.

Table already has an on_activate event which responds to a double-click, but it doesn't respond to Enter. I've created an issue for that: #2707.

Meanwhile, you can already respond to a single click with the on_select event.

the auto-complete options widget is constantly visible. I want to open it only when it's relevant

Widgets can be added to and removed from the window at any time using the methods of the WIdget base class.

[shula]

thank you.
That will be helpful.

(on a side note:
10 On_select doesn't solve it while using the keyboard - because every movement triggers a "select" action,
and a tabe doesn't seem like a solution for a combobox-dropdown, but maybe with some careful styling.)