[While a very cool post... this is very old.  It deals with the now defunction MS Atlas CTPs... check out the MS Ajax Extensions and the documentation (this patch is no longer needed to make this work in MS Ajax)] 

A few months back I blogged a couple solutions to the AutoComplete Extender and PageMethods problem (here and here).  This has been a problem that has perplexed me.

When the June CTP came out a few weeks ago I was in the throes of developing my 2 CodeCamp talks.  I tried AutoComplete again just to have it not work.  I emailed some contacts I have in the MS Atlas team to see what I was doing wrong…

Turns out nothing.  They are slated to have this working for us, but right now it doesn’t.  I decided not to take this as the final answer.  I wanted to give my attendess and my readers a solution.  So I dug into the AutoComplete behavior (inside Javascript) to see if I could patch it. so without further adieu:

Announcing the PageMethods AutoComplete Extender Patch!
So here’s how it works.  I have attached the patch (in a zip file) to this message.  You need to add the patch in a script include: either a standard <script src=”… or a ScriptManager Script include (either will work).

After that AutoComplete will now work with a PageMethods (and it should also still work with WebServices).  The only caveat is that you must mark your autocomplete methods with [WebMethod] (c#) or <WebMethod> (VB).  You will also set the servicepath to your page’s location (actually anything ending in ASPX will work fire the PageMethod in your page), and set the method to the appropriate method in your CodeBehind.

This is my first release of this patch and I already know of some stuff that needs to change in it; feel free to let me know of any problems you find.

Technorati Tags: Atlas, AutoComplete, PageMethods, ASP.Net, Ajax