Microsoft AJAX Toolkit - using the AutoCompleteExtender without a web service

The AJAX Control Toolkit sample site instructions (http://www.asp.net/ajax/ajaxcontroltoolkit/samples/) do not make it clear that you can use the AutoCompleteExtender without a web service. This is possible without any additional coding. Here's the trick:

1. Remove the ServicePath from the extender attributes altogether.
2. Specify the name of your method in the ServiceMethod attribute,
3. Add your method call to the script of the page itself. It will not work with a codebehind directly. For example:

Put this code in the page markup:
<script runat="server">

[System.Web.Services.WebMethod]

[System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptMethod]

public static string[] GetCompletionList(string prefixText, int count)

{

return "this is sample text".Split()

}

</script>

Also make sure you set the service method to the function name and omit the ServicePath :

<cc1:autocompleteextender id="AutoCompleteExtender1" runat="server" behaviorid="AutoCompleteEx" targetcontrolid="txtOrderNumber" ServiceMethod="GetCompletionList" CompletionInterval="500" EnableCaching="true" CompletionSetCount="20" DelimiterCharacters=";, :">