WCF Service Binding

RadSearchBox supports WCF binding. The following steps demonstrate how to bind RadSearchBox through WCF service.

The path to the service and the name of the service method are specified in the WebServiceSettings' Path and Method properties:

<telerik:RadSearchBox RenderMode="Lightweight" runat="server" ID="RadSearchBox1">
    <DropDownSettings Height="400" Width="300" />
    <WebServiceSettings Path="LoadEntriesWCF.svc" Method="GetResults" />
</telerik:RadSearchBox>

To use the integrated support, the Web service should have the following signature:

[OperationContract]
public static SearchBoxData GetResults(SearchBoxContext context)
{
    DataTable data = GetData(context.Text);

    List<SearchBoxItemData> items = new List<SearchBoxItemData>();

    for (int i = 0; i < data.Rows.Count; i++)
    {
        SearchBoxItemData itemData = new SearchBoxItemData();
        itemData.Text = data.Rows[i]["ProductName"].ToString();
        itemData.Value = data.Rows[i]["ProductId"].ToString();

        items.Add(itemData);
    }

    SearchBoxData result = new SearchBoxData();
    result.Items = items.ToArray();
    return result;
}

private static DataTable GetData(string filterString)
{
    SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["NorthwindConnectionString"].ConnectionString);
    SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand("SELECT [ProductId], [ProductName] FROM [Products] WHERE [ProductName] LIKE '%' + @filterString + '%' ORDER BY [ProductId]");
    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@filterString", filterString);
    command.Connection = connection;
    SqlDataAdapter adapter = new SqlDataAdapter(command);

    DataTable data = new DataTable();
    adapter.Fill(data);
    return data;
}

<OperationContract> _
Public Shared Function GetResults(context As SearchBoxContext) As SearchBoxItemData()
    Dim data As DataTable = GetData(context.Text)

    Dim result As New List(Of SearchBoxItemData)()

    For i As Integer = 0 To data.Rows.Count - 1
        Dim itemData As New SearchBoxItemData()
        itemData.Text = data.Rows(i)("ProductName").ToString()
        itemData.Value = data.Rows(i)("ProductId").ToString()

        result.Add(itemData)
    Next

    Return result.ToArray()
End Function

Private Shared Function GetData(filterString As String) As DataTable
    Dim connection As New SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("NorthwindConnectionString").ConnectionString)
    Dim command As New SqlCommand("SELECT [ProductId], [ProductName] FROM [Products] WHERE [ProductName] LIKE '%' + @filterString + '%' ORDER BY [ProductId]")
    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@filterString", filterString)
    command.Connection = connection
    Dim adapter As New SqlDataAdapter(command)

    Dim data As New DataTable()
    adapter.Fill(data)
    Return data
End Function