How to allow user to select from long list (>10k items)

[peperez]

Hey all - 

I am looking for a way to allow users to select a value from a large set of items. Specifically, I am creating an app that loads data about a particular golf course to display on the watch. I have about 10,000 courses, so a static scrolling list won't be very user friendly.

I was thinking about using the Settings API and use autocomplete to narrow down quickly to a single course, but that also feels a bit clunky.

How anyone run into this issue in the past?

[JonFitbit · Accepted solution]

Could you automatically narrow the list by the user's location? Even "country" would be reduce that list I assume.

You should break the list into individual files by your preferred sorting, for example A.json, B.json.

Then you can use the Virtual Tile List to render the list of items. It automatically takes tiles from a pool, so it doesn't need 100s of tiles, and doesn't use lots of memory.

The Virtual Tile List isn't documented yet, but here is a sample app which should help you get started. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rmmqalb6klmdcej/VirtualTileList.zip?dl=1