The Impossible Portal?

[watertiger]

Hi, I'm an infrequent FMP programmer. Here's my dilemma:

Consider a table of People with field Lastname (to simplify). I want to create a portal that filters based on matches to a last name search criteria that I enter in a global field. So, if I enter "J" in that field, I want to see all the names starting with "J". If I instead enter "Jon", I want to see those starting with "Jon", such as "Jones", "Jonsa" etc.

After digging into other posts, I understand that my previous attempts failed due to a relationship based on an unstored calculation. However, I fail to see how to solve this, even using "Ugo's Method".

This seems like a very basic need. Is a Find the only answer, or can a portal be made to do it?

Thanks very much for your time!

[mr_vodka]

I would take a look at these thread.

The first method is more taxing on the processor (additional theta joins) and the second method will give you a bigger file size but is less resource intensive.

The second method will have all the possiblities exploded on the CHILD side and thus a larger index and file size.

Method 1

ExplodeKey Thread 1

ExplodeKey Thread 2

[watertiger]

Thank you, Mr Vodka! Those posts were a little heavier duty than what I needed, but you steered me in the right direction. One of the two mentions searching for the what he calls the range method on another site, and there I found what I needed.

For those who follow, the simplest solution for this (including first and last name partials) can be found by searching for "Type Ahead" under "Resources" here: http://www.databasepros.com/FMPro

There is a downloadable demo file which is clear and concise. You'll need to register, but no big deal.

One word of caution to other quasi-newbies: I copied his solution pretty much verbatim into my design. It didn't work. Yet, everything was exactly the same. Except -- one needs to create a single record for the Interface table. Seems obvious, but you can build it and happily enter search strings in your layout to your heart's content without doing so, and you'll get a blank portal staring back at you.