Internally, cell {type: "dropdown"} is equivalent to cell {type: "autocomplete", strict: true, filter: false}.
I can see its autocomplete & strict behaviour, but what is the filter: false all about? That documentation states:
If defined as ‘true’, the Autocomplete’s suggestion list would be updated after each change in the input area.
This means nothing to me, and I can see no change in behaviour (e.g. after typing in some text not among the choices) of an autocomplete whether I have filter set to true or false?
When it comes to option filter the difference is in the result list
If you use true value the result list will be cut by those options which do not fit into model. Turning off the filter by false shows the full list of options but those that match the model have a model part bold.
I have just spent the morning documenting the behaviour of autocomplete for my end-users, because its behaviour of completely removing non-matching selections is not familiar to them/can be confusing to get the selections back. Now I realise that filter: false or type: "dropdown" is just what I wanted in the first place — I wish I had known!
We have a bit of a description language issue here I did not understand what is in the Documentation, nor what you just wrote here. May I very politely suggest spelling it out, e.g.
If [filter] defined as ‘true’, when the user types into the input area the Autocomplete’s suggestion list is updated to only include those choices starting with what has been typed; if defined as ‘false’ all suggestions remain shown, with those matching what has been typed marked in bold.
That’s a good idea. I’m one of those people who think that the docs can’t never to too bulked with examples and it’s better to write more than less.
I’ve added it to our docs repo at: https://github.com/handsontable/docs/issues/37
I did not understand what is in the Documentation, nor what you just wrote here. May I very politely suggest spelling it out, e.g.