Display a 'nice' view of records found from find

[J__]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and refreshing myself on filemaker.

I would like to search a table of records - easy enough. However, i would like the search view to have at the top the fields I want my user to be able to search on, then below that have a portal (most likely) containing the found records.

I played around with the idea of a self-join on a table, but am missing the proper setting to have it display all the items matched, I only get the same item. My guess is this has something to do with the matches, does anyone know what the correct match setting is?

thanks for your help in advance,

J__

[Fenton]

Using Finds and Portals is like mixing oil and water. I posted this morning about a similar issue ("All" match for a value list). Basically a portal can show what matches any of multiple lines of a key, whereas a Find is sloppier, more like "begins with."

However, if you mean you're wanting to show multiple "matches," to any of several possible exact criteria, then a portal makes sense. It would be an "Or" match (if you can even say that).*

You would need a calculation field, on each side of the relationship, which contained the fields as multiple lines:

field1 & "

[J__]

Hi,

thanks for the response. It sounds like I should stay away from this.

Another option I am considering is: you do a find, then you show a view with all the items you found. How about that?

I guess you can use a table view, but I want to place a button for my user to click on so that they can 'select' that item and then jump back to the dialog where they were working in before.

Is there a way to show a list of found records in a layout and also place a button or two on it? I don't think portals are the way to go here.

thanks again for your response,

sincerely,

J__

[Fenton]

Of course you have a list view layout with buttons. It's a List view. You can also toggle the options in a Table view properties to show a Header, where you can put buttons. But for a nice-looking layout, design your own List view.

What you probably want is to have several global fields, one for each criteria. These are enterable in Browse Mode. In 7 they're even enterable in a Header part. But it would probably get crowded if you're also wanting to show the results below in a list; not to mention a little ambiguous.

So, make a layout with the global fields, formatted as value lists if desired, or just plain. Then a button with a script to "Search" to run a script. The script goes into Find mode, then sets the regular fields to the global fields, then Performs Find [] (NO Restore on either). The beauty of Finds with globals like this is that Finds ignore empty fields, so you just set the fields to what's in the globals. If nothing, fine; it doesn't matter.

It gets awkward if you have to include "Omit" functionality; but ignore that for now.

Do your Find, trap for errors. If none, go to your List view. If none found, say so, Show All Records* and remain, in case they want to try again. I have no idea what you mean by "jump back to the dialog where they were working before." You must mean the "layout" where they were before. Yes, they could return from either the Find (w/globals) layout, or the List view.

It gets a bit tricky however if you allow them to reach this wonderful global Find layout from multiple other layouts. In that case you may want to set the name of the original layout into a global field. In 7 you can now go to a layout by Name (you couldn't in 6). So it's simple enough to return to wherever you came from (in the same file; different file needs to get the file name also).

Or just put buttons for every possible layout they could have come from. Not real elegant but it works, and it gives them the option to go somewhere else if they want to instead of where they came from.

*You could even trap the current found set and record into globals before the Find. But that's high-end :-)

[J__]

Hi,

Thanks for the tips. I'm sorry i didn't respond sooner, been busy. By jumping back I mean jumping back to a layout - yes. The thing is that I want to jump back to that layout and set a field in it. So, if my user finds, say a contact name - using find, then I can jump back to the form where his record is, which is going to have set in a ContactName field the name that was found.

what do you mean by "then sets the regular fields to the global fields, then.."

I'm sorry I don't follow that.

thanks for your suggestions and help,

sincerely,

J__