How to get AutoCompleteTextField to accept a substring

Question

I can generate a list of strings used to select an item using AutoCompleteTextField but it puts the entire string in the edit control. I would like it to just insert the 'name' string.

Should I create a Model that contains the name string and the rendered string?

Which functions should I override to get the required string, to get a value or to handle the click?

private Model<String> groupToJoinModel = new Model<String>();

final AutoCompleteTextField<String> field = new AutoCompleteTextField<String>("ac", new Model<String>(""))
{
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

	@Override
	protected Iterator<String> getChoices(String input)
	{
		List<String> choices = new ArrayList<String>(5);
		// from a database: generate lookup items
		// by concatenating strings: name, type, description
		// code omitted
		return choices.iterator();
	}
};
form.add(field);

groupToJoinModel = (Model<String>) field.getDefaultModel();

// Create a button to perform an action
Button joinGroupsButton = new Button("joinGroupButton")
{
	private static final long serialVersionUID = -4974389888115885756L;
	
	@Override
	public void onSubmit()
	{
		if (groupToJoinModel.getObject() != null)
		{	
			// An action is performed on the contents of the edit control
		}
	}
};
form.add(joinGroupsButton);	

Answer 1

You can use AbstarctAutoCompleteRenderer.

AbstractAutoCompleteRenderer<String> autoCompleteRenderer = new AbstractAutoCompleteRenderer<String>() {
                    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

                    protected final String getTextValue(final String bean) {
                        String name;
                        // Do you logic to extract the name from the bean
                        ...
                        ...
                        ...

                        return name;
                    }

                    @Override
                    protected final void renderChoice(final String object, final Response response, final String criteria) {
                        response.write(getTextValue(object));
                    }

                };


final AutoCompleteTextField<String> autoComp = new AutoCompleteTextField<String>("item", new PropertyModel(str, "item"),
                        autoCompleteRenderer) {
                    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

                    @Override
                    protected Iterator<String> getChoices(String arg0) {
                        // Your logic
                        ...
                        ...
                        ...

                        return filteredList.iterator();
                    }

                };

The renderer is passed in the Auto complete constructor.