Hi gang,

I was wondering if there were a way to use wildcards in relationships.

Specifically, I have a form with a field (SearchName) that is linked in a self-join relationship to another field (Name) in the same table. On that form I have placed a portal that shows the related records.

All works OK. When you type in a name into the SearchName field, any exact matches are displayed in the portal. What I would like to do is be able to search for non-exact matches. For example, type "sm*" or something similar into the SearchName field, and have the portal display "Smith, Small, Smoog" etc.

Any ideas how this could be done?

Cheers!

It's not clear if you're using 7 or 8; if you're using 8, you can look into the Auto-complete feature, which should behave the way you want.

HTH,

David

Hi Nephron,

See my explaination of partial matches in relationships in this thread:

http://www.fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/183594/

Thanks David,

I am using Filemaker Pro 8 for Mac, and we will be deploying the solution using Server 8 Advanced.

I searched for auto-complete and autocomplete in the Help menu, no dice. Can you point me in the right direction?

Cheers!

Hi Ender,

Thanks for the post.

I think the Type Ahead example holds promise for me, but I don't seem to be able to operationalize it.

Let me give you the specifics of my situation.

FirstName and LastName are text fields in tblDemographics. SearchByLastName is a global text field in the same table. Currently I have a self join that connects tblDemographics:SearchByLastName = tblDemographicsSearchByLastName:LastName. In this case tblDemographicsSearchByLastName is the name of the self-joined table.

I tried creating a new calculated field in tblDemographics called xSearchLastName, using the Type Ahead database as an example. I then changed the self-join to use xSearchLastName, using an >= AND <= join as per the Type Ahead example.

Doesn't work though :

Any advice?

Cheers!

Just an update ...

I tried again with the Type Ahead example, and I am getting closer. The problem now is that I have to click a button within the portal in order to get it to refresh after I have typed a new search term in the SearchLastName field. Is there a way to force a relationship refresh in code?

Cheers!

Other options exists:

http://www.newcenturydata.com/downloads/filter.zip

--sd

Other options exists:

That's prety much the same technique, only more convoluted.

Nephron, with all of these filtering techniques you have to exit the field before the portal updates. But you shouldn't need to hit a refresh button.