DevExtreme Angular - Customize Item Appearance

For a minor customization of Autocomplete items, you can use the default item template. This template defines the appearance of an item depending on whether specific fields are present or absent from the item's data object. For example, the following code generates three items: the first is not customized, the second is disabled and the third is hidden.

jQuery
JavaScript
$(function() {
    $("#autocompleteContainer").dxAutocomplete({
        valueExpr: "text",
        dataSource: [
            { text: "James" },
            { text: "John", disabled: true },
            { text: "Joseph", visible: false }
        ],
        placeholder: "Type first name..."
    });
});
Angular
TypeScript
HTML
import { DxAutocompleteModule } from "devextreme-angular";
// ...
export class AppComponent {
    autocompleteData = [
        { text: "James" },
        { text: "John", disabled: true },
        { text: "Joseph", visible: false }
    ]
}
@NgModule({
    imports: [
        // ...
        DxAutocompleteModule
    ],
    // ...
})
<dx-autocomplete
    [dataSource]="autocompleteData"
    valueExpr="text"
    placeholder="Type first name...">
</dx-autocomplete>

Using the default item template is the easiest way to customize an item, but it lacks flexibility. Instead, you can define a custom template for items of the widget. For Angular, AngularJS, and Knockout apps, DevExtreme provides a markup component called dxTemplate. The following code shows how you can use dxTemplate to define a template for the Autocomplete items.

Angular
HTML
TypeScript
<dx-autocomplete
    [dataSource]="autocompleteData"
    valueExpr="country"
    placeholder="Type country name..."
    itemTemplate="full">
    <div *dxTemplate="let itemObj of 'full'">
        <p>Country: <b>{{itemObj.country}}</b></p>
        <p style="color:grey;">Capital: <b>{{itemObj.capital}}</b></p>
    </div>
</dx-autocomplete>
import { DxAutocompleteModule } from "devextreme-angular";
// ...
export class AppComponent {
    autocompleteData = [
        { country: "Afghanistan", capital: "Kabul" },
        { country: "Albania", capital: "Tirana" },
        // ...
    ]
}
@NgModule({
    imports: [
        // ...
        DxAutocompleteModule
    ],
    // ...
})
AngularJS
HTML
JavaScript
<div ng-controller="DemoController">
    <div dx-autocomplete="{
        dataSource: autocompleteData,
        valueExpr: 'country',
        placeholder: 'Type country name...',
        itemTemplate: 'full'
    }" dx-item-alias="itemObj">
        <div data-options="dxTemplate: { name: 'full' }">
            <p>Country: <b>{{itemObj.country}}</b></p>
            <p style="color:grey;">Capital: <b>{{itemObj.capital}}</b></p>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
angular.module('DemoApp', ['dx'])
    .controller('DemoController', function ($scope) {
        $scope.autocompleteData = [
            { country: "Afghanistan", capital: "Kabul" },
            { country: "Albania", capital: "Tirana" },
            // ...
        ];
    });
NOTE
The dx-item-alias directive specifies the variable that is used to access the item object.
Knockout
HTML
JavaScript
<div data-bind="dxAutocomplete: {
    dataSource: autocompleteData,
    valueExpr: 'country',
    placeholder: 'Type country name...',
    itemTemplate: 'full'
}">
    <div data-options="dxTemplate: { name: 'full' }">
        <p>Country: <b data-bind="text: country"></b></p>
        <p style="color:grey;">Capital: <b data-bind="text: capital"></b></p>
    </div>
</div>
var viewModel = {
    autocompleteData: [
        { country: "Afghanistan", capital: "Kabul" },
        { country: "Albania", capital: "Tirana" },
        // ...
    ]
};

ko.applyBindings(viewModel);

If you use jQuery alone, combine the HTML markup for items manually with jQuery DOM manipulation methods. To apply this markup, use the itemTemplate callback function as shown in the following code.

JavaScript
var autocompleteData = [
    { country: "Afghanistan", capital: "Kabul" },
    { country: "Albania", capital: "Tirana" },
    // ...
];

$(function() {
    $("#autocompleteContainer").dxAutocomplete({
        dataSource: autocompleteData,
        valueExpr: 'country',
        placeholder: 'Type country name...',
        itemTemplate: function (itemData, itemIndex, itemElement) {
            itemElement.append("<p>Country: <b>" + itemData.country + "</b></p>");
            itemElement.append("<p style='color:grey;'>Capital: <b>" + itemData.capital + "</b></p>");
        }
    });
});

You can also customize an individual Autocomplete item. For this purpose, declare a template for this item as a script and pass its id to the template field.

HTML
JavaScript
<script id="individualTemplate" type="text/html">
    <!-- ... -->
</script>
var autocompleteData = [
    { text: "James"},
    { text: "Joseph", template: $("#individualTemplate") },
    // ...
];

In addition, you can use a 3rd-party template engine to customize widget appearance. For more information, see the 3rd-Party Template Engines article.

See Also