UX: Improve symbol mapping input with autocomplete and validation feedback

[marcoscale98]

Problem

The Symbol Mapping screen (in the asset's Market Data tab) lacks feedback and guidance, making it hard to use correctly.

(LYMS does not retrieve data, LYMS.DE does it instead. But no feedback is received)

Current issues:

1. No autocomplete — The symbol input is a plain text field. Users must know the exact ticker format for each provider (e.g. LYMS.DE for Yahoo Finance) with no hints or suggestions.

2. No format guidance — There's no indication of what format the symbol should be in for the selected provider. Users don't know if they should enter AAPL, AAPL.US, NASDAQ:AAPL, etc.

3. No real-time validation — While typing, there's no feedback on whether the symbol is recognized by the provider or whether price data is available for it.

4. No validation on save — When pressing "Save Changes", the symbol is saved silently even if it's unknown to the provider or will return no prices. There's no confirmation or warning that the mapping will work.

Expected Behavior

• Autocomplete or search suggestions while typing a symbol (filtered by the selected provider with effective data).
• A format hint or placeholder text showing the expected format per provider (e.g. e.g. AAPL, LYMS.DE).
• Real-time validation: show a checkmark/error after the user stops typing to indicate if the symbol is found and has price data.
• On save: warn the user if the symbol could not be validated (no prices found), rather than saving silently.

Impact

Users end up with broken symbol mappings without realizing it, causing assets to show stale or missing prices silently.

[marcoscale98]

Implementation Approach Analysis

After exploring the codebase, here are three approaches for this issue, from simplest to most complex:

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Option A — Inline validation with provider hints ✅ (chosen)

What it does:

• Adds debounced resolveSymbolQuote validation after the user stops typing (~800ms)
• Shows an inline status indicator: spinner → ✓ green (price found) or ✗ red (no data)
• Adds provider-specific placeholder hints (e.g. AAPL, LYMS.DE for Yahoo Finance, bitcoin for CoinGecko)
• On save: shows a warning if any mapping has an unvalidated or failed symbol (non-blocking — user can still save)

Trade-offs:

• ✅ Surgical: only touches the symbol input cell in the mapping table
• ✅ Reuses existing resolveSymbolQuote API already in the codebase
• ✅ No new components needed
• ⚠️ Validation is against the default provider, not necessarily the specific one selected in the mapping row

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Option B — Autocomplete search input

What it does:

• Replaces the plain input with a search-as-you-type experience using the existing searchTicker API
• Shows symbol suggestions as a dropdown while typing (similar to the activity form symbol selector)

Trade-offs:

• ✅ Better discoverability — users can find the right ticker format
• ⚠️ searchTicker searches globally, not filtered by the selected provider — suggestions may not match the provider's format
• ⚠️ Embedding TickerSearchInput in a table row is awkward (it's designed as a primary selector)
• ⚠️ More code, more complexity

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Option C — Input + "Test" button per row

What it does:

• Keeps the plain input but adds a small "Test" button next to each symbol field
• Clicking it calls resolveSymbolQuote on demand and shows the result inline

Trade-offs:

• ✅ Simplest to implement
• ⚠️ Requires explicit user action — no passive feedback while typing
• ⚠️ Easy to ignore, doesn't guide users proactively

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Going with Option A — it gives passive, real-time feedback with minimal complexity, directly using the existing validation API.

[Jonjon-prog]

Hello Marco and thanks for this !

It would be good also to add the possibility to use ISIN as it's a standard way to look for holdings (ETfs mutual funds etc)
I think we need to put it inside the mapping to be sure we can have a solid base for that.

[marcoscale98]

Hello Marco and thanks for this !

It would be good also to add the possibility to use ISIN as it's a standard way to look for holdings (ETfs mutual funds etc)
I think we need to put it inside the mapping to be sure we can have a solid base for that.

It would be great!
But at the moment, I'm working on the implementation of the Ticker Symbol Mapping only.