so over my head: help with searches, functionality

[Manford von Richthofen]

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.

[Reed]

Here's an example of one way to do this simply (see attached file)

I set up the database using three main data tables: Conferences, Abstracts, and Authors.

I assumed that each abstract would only appear at one conference, but that each Abstract could have many Authors, and each Author could be on many Abstracts from the same or different conferences. To track this information, I added a join table which connects abstracts and authors.

I added a layout for each of the three tables along with portals that show the related information. Using the Go To Related Record... a user could navigate from layout to layout showing the related records on their own layouts. Without adding any search scripts, a user can simply go into find mode to enter search criteria in any of the fields on any layout.

As far as making the PDF files available over the network, you could do two things:

1. Place the Files into container fields in the database. If the files are stored in the database, they will be available to network clients.

2. Store the PDF files on a web server, and place a URL to the file in a text field in filemaker. The Open URL.. step will bring up the file.

Making the PDFs searchable wouldn't be too easy, all I can think of is to import the text contents of each PDF file into a text field that could be searched. Of course that will only tell you which PDFs the text is in, not where in the document. For that you'd have to open the file and search again in Acrobat.

If you want to put this online, I assume you mean on the web, and not just on a Filemaker Server. The best option for you would probably be to use Instant Web Publishing (IWP), which basically renders your layouts to CSS and HTML. Users could interact with data in a similar way as within filemaker. (There are some limitations to IWP that you'll have to work around)

The way I've done things with your file is by no means the only way or the most elegant way to do it. It was just the quickest (no scripts or big calculations) But there are ways to set up searches of all tables from one layout or even one field.

Let me know if you have any other questions or if I've done more harm than good

Dana

conference.fp7.zip

[Manford von Richthofen]

Thank you very much for your reply. I've looked over what you created and it's definitely more than I knew how to do. I will see if I can figure out how to start integrating it into what I have so far. I am so overwhelmed by this program for some reason, but I am trying desperately to get some grip on it. Thanks again for your help.

[Reed]

If you have any specific questions about what I posted, just let me know and I'll explain....