help with 'not equals'

[Jeff Spall]

Hi, I've been having trouble adding a button which searches for cases that aren't closed in a support database.

I though this was going to be a five minute job!

<FORM ACTION="FMPro" METHOD="post">

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-DB" VALUE="support">

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-Lay" VALUE="Layout1">

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-format" VALUE="search_results.htm">

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-error" VALUE="search_error.htm">

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-SortField" VALUE="user_name">

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-SortORder" VALUE="Ascending">

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-max" VALUE="20">

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-Op" VALUE=ne>

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="status" VALUE="closed">

<INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="-Find" VALUE="see open issues">

</FORM>

...if I change the operator to 'eq' the search works and finds the 'closed' cases. I've tried 'neq' as an operator as well. Still won't work!

What's wrong???

my workround is to have a calulated field which delivers 'yes' to open cases and find those, but what should I use for a 'not equals' search here?:

thanks, jeff

[IdealData]

The value for "not equals" on -Op is "neq"

Note : it is "quoted"

[Keith M. Davie]

"...my workround is to have a calulated field which delivers 'yes' to open cases and find those, but what should I use for a 'not equals' search here????"

Another example of why I don't use the -op and -lop tags.

My first question is how would you do this in the db using the symbols available to a find operation? There is no "neq" symbol.

Next, if you have a calculation field which says a case is open ("Yes") can you also make that field say "No" when a case is not open? (What about a radio button for the status of the case?) Then you can search for No or Yes as needed.

If you really, really, REALLY must use the "neq" the choice is to use the ".neq." in an If conditional on the format file to determine that which is displayed.

[Jeff Spall]

Hi, thanks for the advice, guys.

This is a strange tale...

You're quite right, the operator is "neq"

Being lazy, I made the page in Home Page to generate the tags quickly, and when you choose 'not equals' in the built-in FMP library, it generates "ne"

I changed this a couple of times to "neq", saved and uploaded the file. Still didn't work. When I looked at the source code delivered to the browser, the operator was changed to "bw".

Yep, this happens in Home Page when you go from html to edit mode. Dunno why, it just does.

I redid the page in BB edit and the search works fine.

Thanks for the clues. Jeff

[andyjohnson]

Here is a workaround - give the user a choice (which I needed to do on my pages anyway):

<select NAME="-OP">

<option VALUE=eq SELECTED>equals

<option VALUE=neq>not equals

</select>