In a typical web form, setting the belongs_to/has_one relationship, is usually represented by a drop down menu (select tag).

This becomes cumbersome when the selection grows to hundred or thousands of options.

The use of an AJAX powered autocomplete field is one way I have been experimenting with this week.

The problem is the autocomplete field was never intended to set a relationship, only fill in the value of a text field.

I thought an elegant solution might be the Combo Text Box found here.

But, it does not work in IE 6.

I have fallen back to offer an option to search using an autocomplete field to set the selected tag in the drop down menu.

There must be a better way?