A newer version of this page is available.

JavaScript/jQuery Lookup API

The Lookup is a widget that allows an end user to search for an item in a collection shown in a drop-down menu.

import Lookup from "devextreme/ui/lookup"

DevExtreme widgets are integrated with many popular libraries and frameworks. See the Installation section (for JavaScript libraries) or the Prerequisites and Installation section (for ASP.NET MVC framework) to find details on setting up DevExtreme with a particular library or framework.

The following code shows how to create the Lookup widget using every supported library and framework. For more details on working with widgets in these libraries and frameworks, see the Widget Basics topic for jQuery, Angular, AngularJS, Knockout or ASP.NET MVC.

jQuery

JavaScript

HTML

$(function () {
    $("#lookup").dxLookup({
        dataSource: [ "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3" ],
        placeholder: "Select an item"
    });
});

<div id="lookup"></div>

Angular

HTML

TypeScript

<dx-lookup
    [dataSource]="lookupDataSource"
    placeholder="Select an item">
</dx-lookup>

import { DxLookupModule } from 'devextreme-angular';
// ...
export class AppComponent {
    lookupDataSource = [ "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3" ];
}
@NgModule({
    imports: [
        // ...
        DxLookupModule
    ],
    // ...
})

AngularJS

HTML

JavaScript

<div ng-controller="DemoController">
    <div dx-lookup="{
        dataSource: lookupDataSource,
        placeholder: 'Select an item'
    }"></div>
</div>

angular.module('DemoApp', ['dx'])
    .controller("DemoController", function ($scope) {
        $scope.lookupDataSource = [ "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3" ];
    });

Knockout

HTML

JavaScript

<div data-bind="dxLookup: {
    dataSource: lookupDataSource,
    placeholder: 'Select an item'
}"></div>

var viewModel = {
    lookupDataSource: [ "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3" ]
};
ko.applyBindings(viewModel);

ASP.NET MVC Controls

Razor C#

Razor VB

@(Html.DevExtreme().Lookup()
    .ID("lookup")
    .DataSource(new[] { "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3" })
    .Placeholder("Select an item")
)

@(Html.DevExtreme().Lookup() _
    .ID("lookup") _
    .DataSource({ "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3" }) _
    .Placeholder("Select an item")
)

Options

An object defining configuration options for the Lookup widget.

Name	Description
accessKey	Specifies the shortcut key that sets focus on the widget.
activeStateEnabled	Specifies whether or not the widget changes its state when interacting with a user.
animation	Configures widget visibility animations. This object contains two fields: show and hide.
applyButtonText	The text displayed on the Apply button.
applyValueMode	Specifies the way an end-user applies the selected value.
cancelButtonText	The text displayed on the Cancel button.
cleanSearchOnOpening	Specifies whether or not the widget cleans the search box when the popup window is displayed.
clearButtonText	The text displayed on the Clear button.
closeOnOutsideClick	Specifies whether to close the drop-down menu if a user clicks outside it.
dataSource	A data source used to fetch data the widget should display.
deferRendering	Specifies whether to render the drop-down field's content when it is displayed. If false, the content is rendered immediately.
disabled	Specifies whether the widget responds to user interaction.
displayExpr	Specifies the name of the data source item field whose value is displayed by the widget.
displayValue	Returns the value currently displayed by the widget.
dropDownButtonTemplate	Specifies a custom template for the drop-down button.
elementAttr	Specifies the attributes to be attached to the widget's root element.
fieldTemplate	Specifies a custom template for the input field.
focusStateEnabled	Specifies whether the widget can be focused using keyboard navigation.
fullScreen	A Boolean value specifying whether or not to display the lookup in full-screen mode.
grouped	A Boolean value specifying whether or not to group widget items.
groupTemplate	Specifies a custom template for group captions.
height	Specifies the widget's height.
hint	Specifies text for a hint that appears when a user pauses on the widget.
hoverStateEnabled	Specifies whether the widget changes its state when a user pauses on it.
inputAttr	Specifies the attributes to be passed on to the underlying HTML element.
isValid	Specifies whether the editor's value is valid.
items	An array of items displayed by the widget.
itemTemplate	Specifies a custom template for items.
minSearchLength	The minimum number of characters that must be entered into the text box to begin a search. Applies only if searchEnabled is true.
name	The value to be assigned to the `name` attribute of the underlying HTML element.
nextButtonText	The text displayed on the button used to load the next page from the data source.
noDataText	The text or HTML markup displayed by the widget if the item collection is empty.
onClosed	A handler for the closed event.
onContentReady	A handler for the contentReady event. Executed when the widget's content is ready. This handler may be executed multiple times during the widget's lifetime depending on the number of times its content changes.
onDisposing	A handler for the disposing event. Executed when the widget is removed from the DOM using the remove(), empty(), or html() jQuery methods only.
onInitialized	A handler for the initialized event. Executed only once, after the widget is initialized.
onItemClick	A handler for the itemClick event.
onOpened	A handler for the opened event.
onOptionChanged	A handler for the optionChanged event. Executed after an option of the widget is changed.
onPageLoading	A handler for the pageLoading event.
onPullRefresh	A handler for the pullRefresh event.
onScroll	A handler for the scroll event.
onSelectionChanged	A handler for the selectionChanged event.
onTitleRendered	A handler for the titleRendered event.
onValueChanged	A handler for the valueChanged event.
opened	Specifies whether or not the drop-down editor is displayed.
pageLoadingText	Specifies the text shown in the pullDown panel, which is displayed when the widget is scrolled to the bottom.
pageLoadMode	Specifies whether the next page is loaded when a user scrolls the widget to the bottom or when the "next" button is clicked.
placeholder	The text displayed by the widget when nothing is selected.
popupHeight	Specifies the popup element's height. Applies only if fullScreen is false.
popupWidth	Specifies the popup element's width. Applies only if fullScreen is false.
position	An object defining widget positioning options.
pulledDownText	Specifies the text displayed in the pullDown panel when the widget is pulled below the refresh threshold.
pullingDownText	Specifies the text shown in the pullDown panel while the list is being pulled down to the refresh threshold.
pullRefreshEnabled	A Boolean value specifying whether or not the widget supports the "pull down to refresh" gesture.
refreshingText	Specifies the text displayed in the pullDown panel while the widget is being refreshed.
rtlEnabled	Switches the widget to a right-to-left representation.
searchEnabled	Specifies whether the search box is visible.
searchExpr	Specifies the name of a data source item field or an expression whose value is compared to the search criterion.
searchMode	Specifies the binary operation used to filter data.
searchPlaceholder	The text that is provided as a hint in the lookup's search bar.
searchTimeout	Specifies the time delay, in milliseconds, after the last character has been typed in, before a search is executed.
selectedItem	Gets the currently selected item.
shading	A Boolean value specifying whether or not the main screen is inactive while the lookup is active.
showCancelButton	Specifies whether to display the Cancel button in the lookup window.
showClearButton	Specifies whether or not to display the Clear button in the lookup window.
showDataBeforeSearch	Specifies whether or not the widget displays unfiltered values until a user types a number of characters exceeding the minSearchLength option value.
showPopupTitle	A Boolean value specifying whether or not to display the title in the popup window.
tabIndex	Specifies the number of the element when the Tab key is used for navigating.
text	The read-only option that holds the text displayed by the widget input element.
title	The title of the lookup window.
titleTemplate	Specifies a custom template for the title.
useNativeScrolling	Specifies whether or not the widget uses native scrolling.
usePopover	Specifies whether or not to show lookup contents in a Popover widget.
validationError	Specifies information on the validation error when using a custom validation engine. Should be changed at runtime along with the isValid option.
validationMessageMode	Specifies how the message about the validation rules that are not satisfied by this editor's value is displayed.
value	Specifies the currently selected value. May be an object if dataSource contains objects and valueExpr is not set.
valueChangeEvent	Specifies the DOM events after which the widget's search results should be updated.
valueExpr	Specifies which data field provides the widget's value. When this option is not set, the value is the entire data object.
visible	Specifies whether the widget is visible.
width	Specifies the widget's width.

Methods

This section describes members used to manipulate data.

Name	Description
beginUpdate()	Prevents the widget from refreshing until the endUpdate() method is called.
blur()	Removes focus from the input element.
close()	Closes the drop-down editor.
content()	Gets the popup window's content.
defaultOptions(rule)	Specifies the device-dependent default configuration options for this component.
dispose()	Disposes of all the resources allocated to the Lookup instance.
element()	Gets the root widget element.
endUpdate()	Refreshes the widget after a call of the beginUpdate() method.
field()	Gets the widget's `<input>` element.
focus()	Sets focus to the input element representing the widget.
getDataSource()	Gets the DataSource instance.
getInstance(element)	Gets the instance of a widget found using its DOM node.
instance()	Gets the widget's instance. Use it to access other methods of the widget.
off(eventName)	Detaches all event handlers from a single event.
off(eventName, eventHandler)	Detaches a particular event handler from a single event.
on(eventName, eventHandler)	Subscribes to an event.
on(events)	Subscribes to events.
open()	Opens the drop-down editor.
option()	Gets all widget options.
option(optionName)	Gets the value of a single option.
option(optionName, optionValue)	Updates the value of a single option.
option(options)	Updates the values of several options.
registerKeyHandler(key, handler)	Registers a handler to be executed when a user presses a specific key.
repaint()	Repaints the widget. Call it if you made modifications that changed the widget's state to invalid.
reset()	Resets the value option to the default value.

Events

This section describes events fired by this widget.

Name	Description
closed	Fires after a drop-down list has been hidden.
contentReady	Raised when the widget's content is ready.
disposing	Raised when the widget is removed from the DOM using the remove(), empty(), or html() jQuery methods only.
initialized	Raised only once, after the widget is initialized.
itemClick	Fires when a widget item is clicked.
opened	Fires when the drop-down editor is shown.
optionChanged	Raised after a widget option is changed.
pageLoading	Fires before loading the next page in the lookup list if autopaging is enabled.
pullRefresh	Fires before the lookup list is refreshed as a result of the "pull down to refresh" gesture.
scroll	Fires on each scroll gesture.
selectionChanged	Fires when the selection changes.
titleRendered	Fires after the widget title is rendered.
valueChanged	Fires when the editor value changes.

Default Item Template

This section lists the data source fields that are used in a default item template.

Type:

Object

By default, a predefined item template is applied to display the items of this widget. This template is based on certain fields of the data source provided for this widget. Below is the list of these fields. If the default item template is not appropriate for your task, implement a custom item template based on these or other fields of your data source.

JavaScript/jQuery Lookup API

jQuery

Angular

AngularJS

Knockout

ASP.NET MVC Controls

See Also

Options

Methods

Events

See Also

Default Item Template

See Also