Just so happens I’m working on a new business oriented sample app that lets you select locations from a search box. It’s not quite 100% what you’re looking for, but it’s close:
-- This function will generate the searchTableView from scratch. We don't want the -- tableView until we have a reason to search for it, so create it on the fly. It -- will be destroyed above when something is selcted but if it's not clean it up first. local function displayHits( ) -- if the tableView exists, destroy it if searchTableView then searchTableView:removeSelf() searchTableView = nil end -- create a new tableView searchTableView = widget.newTableView({ left = 20, top = locationEntryField.y + 15, height = display.actualContentHeight - locationEntryField.y - 65, width = display.actualContentWidth - 40, onRowRender = onSearchRowRender, onRowTouch = onSearchRowTouch, }) -- Loop over the locationChoices table which has the matched records from the -- database and insert the rows into the table. We need to also pass in the -- latitude and longitude as well for when we add an entry to the user's location -- table. local isCategory = false local rowHeight = 40 local rowColor = { default=theme.rowBackgroundColor, over=theme.rowBackgroundColor } local lineColor = { 0.5, 0.5, 0.5 } print("Before inserting rows into tableView") local t = system.getTimer() for i = 1, #locationChoices do print( locationChoices[i].name) searchTableView:insertRow({ isCategory = isCategory, rowHeight = rowHeight, rowColor = rowColor, lineColor = lineColor, params = { name = locationChoices[i].name, latitude = locationChoices[i].latitude, longitude = locationChoices[i].longitude, id = i }, }) end print("After inserting rows into tableView", system.getTimer() - t) end
-- Look up a string in the sqlite database. Return a list of matched locations. This is called -- from the text entry field's event handler. local function lookupCity( address ) table.remove( locationChoices ) locationChoices = nil locationChoices = {} print("Before Query" ) local t = system.getTimer( ) for row in myData.db:nrows("SELECT \* FROM cities WHERE LOWER(city) LIKE '" .. address .. "%' ORDER BY city") do locationChoices[#locationChoices + 1] = { name = row.city, latitude = row.latitude, longitude = row.longitude } print(row.city) end print("After Query", system.getTimer() - t) if #locationChoices \<= 100 then displayHits() end end
-- handle the user input --local hasFetchedLocationList = false local function fieldHandler( textField ) return function( event ) print( event.phase, textField().text ) if ( "began" == event.phase ) then -- This is the "keyboard has appeared" event -- Since we are just starting to type, indicate we haven't done a DB lookup yet. --hasFetchedLocationList = false elseif ( "ended" == event.phase ) then -- This event is called when the user stops editing a field: for example, when they touch a different field elseif ( "editing" == event.phase ) then -- don't query the database for one or two letters. if string.len( textField().text ) \> 2 then lookupCity( textField().text ) else if searchTableView then searchTableView:removeSelf() searchTableView = nil end end elseif ( "submitted" == event.phase ) then -- This event occurs when the user presses the "return" key (if available) on the onscreen keyboard -- There are two ways to select the location. Tapping the table row, or hitting the submit/enter key. -- This handles the enter key scenerio. print( textField().text ) lookupCity( textField().text ) -- Hide keyboard native.setKeyboardFocus( nil ) end end end
I have a native new text field and in it, I look to see if I have a string 3 characters or more (> 2). Since I don’t want to return thousands of places that start with the letter ‘s’. Once I have the 3 letters or more, I query the database by calling lookupCity( address ). This query’s the database and gets a list of locations that match the first N letters. I produce a table named “locationChoices” which holds all of the returned locations and then I call displayHits(). Display hits kills an existing tableView and recreates it. Then I insert records for each item in locationChoices. Each time the user types a letter, I repeat the process. Finally if they hit the enter on the keyboard it will also do a search. Now I had to put a limit on the search. Do you know how many records I pulled back that started with “San”? There is a that that says if I have more than 100 items, don’t build the table. This makes the user type more to get to a reasonable amount of hits. 100 may still be too many. No one is going to scroll through that many (at least not for my use).
