I am trying to set up a database that will allow people to have searchable access to a list of old abstracts from a scientific conference. I spent a lot of time adding, individually, each author's name, the name of the session, and the title of the paper. These are each their own field. I made it so that when the user clicks on the button "Abstracts 2002," it will take them to a layout displaying all of the abstracts that are from 2002. No special code or anything, just a table. Now, I want the user to be able to search for any of these three criteria, as well as for keywords among all three. I cant even make a simple search tool right now because I started using this program VERY recently and am teaching myself. I tried writing a script to go to the "Abstract 2002" layout and perform a search, but I can't figure out how to create the data entry point, i.e. where I would type "Bob smith", then click the search button, and the results for bob smith would emerge. The point is, I want and need to make it look like every other generic search engine, and can't figure it out.
In addition to this, a few major problems have arisen because I am simply not suited for this type of work, but am desperately trying to come up with something. First, in successive years, new abstracts will need to be added to the site. The way I did it was tedious as all hell, and in my idiocy, the results for the 2002 abstracts are done seperately than the ones for 2000. I can't figure out how to display both the 2000 and the 2002 abstracts on one page; perhaps it is better to keep them seperate, but in terms of searchability I want both years to be referenced. Also, in the display of the of the abstracts, which is a table with "Author" then "Session" then "Title", I have added to each a link to their respective PDF files. This is simply a button that opens the PDF, nothing fancy. I don't know if this is going to continue to work once the database is available online; in fact I am really confused as to the functionality of searching, updating, etc. from other computers once the database is online. Along with this, is it possible to make the PDF's searchable from FMP?
This is probably too wordy and no one will respond, but I really need any help I can get.
