Autocomplete in MVVMCross Xamarin (Android)

Question

I am trying to create an autocomplete control in Xamarin Android based layout. I am using MVVMCross.

I have created the following AXML layout in my fragment.

 <TextView
            android:text="Item"
            android:layout_column="0"
            android:id="@+id/textView42"
            android:layout_height="28.6dp"
            android:layout_width="86.9dp"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:layout_marginTop="17.5dp"
            android:layout_marginRight="17.5dp" />
        <AutoCompleteTextView
            android:id="@+id/autocomplete_country"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
            local:MvxBind="Adapter Items" />

I had updated my viewmodel to return a string array.

private string[] _items = new string[] { "DD", "DD2" };
public String[] Items
{
    get { return this._items; }
    set { this._items = value; RaisePropertyChanged<string[]>(() => this._items); }
}

I think I need to use an ArrayAdapter, However I am not sure how to do it. Please provide some guidance/pointers which can help me to proceed.

I am new to Xamarin and MVVMCross, so I might be missing things here.

Answer 1

You don't need a custom Adapter. Switch to MvxAutoCompleteTextView and use MVVMCross binding. Here is an example of how I've used it.

<MvxAutoCompleteTextView
    android:id="@+id/DrugName"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:completionThreshold="1"
    android:hint="Enter drug name..."
    android:textSize="@dimen/text_size_xlarge"
    local:MvxItemTemplate="@layout/item_drug_notclickable"
    local:MvxBind="ItemsSource DrugSuggestions; PartialText DrugSearchTerm; SelectedObject Drug;"
    android:layout_gravity="right" />

As Nikola said in the comments you want to be calling RaisePropertyChanged against the Items property not the private variable. That goes for all property changed calls.

One thing to watch out for with the AutoComplete is that changes to the Text must result in a change to the ItemSource. Have a look at this GitHub answer for a full explanation, https://github.com/MvvmCross/MvvmCross/issues/945 of the gotcha