Are there any professional Combobox controls (dropdown list with autosuggestion) based on the jQuery library?
It should be able to handle large datasets and have some skinning options. A multi-column result list would be great too. I'm working with ASP.NET, but it's a not a problem if I had to write a wrapper for it.
I'm already using a third-party control, but I ran into some compatibilty issues between two vendor's controls. Well, I want to get rid of this kind of dependencies.
Here's one that looks very promising. It's a true combo - you see what you type. Has a cool feature I haven't seen elsewhere: paging results.
Unfortunately, the best thing I have seen is the jquery.combobox, but it doesn't really look like something I'd really want to use in my web applications. I think there are some usability issues with this control, but as a user I don't think I'd know to start typing for the dropdownlist to turn into a textbox.
I much prefer the Combo Dropdown Box, but it still has some features that I'd want and it's still in alpha. The only think I don't like about this other than its being alpha... is that once I type in the combobox, the original dropdownlist items disappear. However, maybe there is a setting for this... or maybe it could be added fairly easily.
Those are the only two options that I know of. Good luck in your search. I'd love to hear if you find one or if the second option works out for you.
For large datasets, how about JQuery UI Autocomplete, which is basically the "official" version of Jorn Zaeferrer's Autocomplete plugin?
I also wrote a straight JQuery combobox plugin that's gotten pretty good feedback from its users. It's explicitly not meant for large datasets though; I figure that if you want something that prunes the list based on what the user types, you're better off with Jorn's autocompletion plugin.
An official jQuery UI ComboBox/Autocomplete component is in the making... (previously in beta for jQuery UI 1.5.x), see jQuery UI Wiki
UPDATE:
Autocomplete functionality is now a core feature of jQuery UI, see docs.
Why don't you try http://jqueryajax.codeplex.com/. It is a collection of ASP.NET controls that contains multicolumn drop down as well.
I had the same problem, so I ended up making my own.
It has a template system built in, so you can make the results look like anything you want. Works on all major browsers and accepts arrays & json objects. http://code.google.com/p/custom-combobox/
