News

Developers Go On-the-Fly with ComboBox Upgrade

• By Kathleen Ohlson
• July 19, 2005

eBusiness Applications recently introduced a new version of Web ComboBox, its AJAX-based enterprise software component, which allows developers to build applications featuring on-the-fly data retrieval from Web pages.

Developers build Web applications with Web ComboBox 3.0 that look like traditional desktop applications, but business users can call up customer records, perform fuzzy searches for hidden information and other data entry, and search tasks without refreshing the page. Developers define an initial value based on a search string, and an item from the remote dataset is selected based on that initial string.

Web ComboBox 3.0 features type-ahead search, which means users can type a few characters in the text box, and the rest of the string is populated and highlighted in the same box. When users start typing for fuzzy searches or SmartSearch, suggestions appear, containing a string anywhere in order of importance. Compact search provides type-ahead searching with only a textbox, and Classic search refreshes the local dataset as users type, but users can page the dataset. SmartList enables users to build a list of items in a text area and using SmartSearch, automatically adds a value to this list in the text area.

Its Web controls use an XML and JavaScript interface, minimizing network traffic and speeding up data access. The bidirectional data filter formats server-side data to prevent XML and JavaScript-related parsing issues, and it formats client-side data input to send to the server. Basic paging now allows developers to trigger paging by a key press, automatically scrolling the item to the top of the list.

Web ComboBox 3.0 is compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape and Camino browsers, as well as supports databases including Oracle, MySQL, Access, SQL Server and DB2. It also supports these platforms: ASP.Net, ASP, PHP and JSP JRE version 1.4 and older.

Pricing for a ComboBox 3.0 enterprise subscription starts at $1,999.