Issues with Find

[Lincoln Nail]

I actually have two issues, but they are somewhat connected.

1.) I have created a tab panel for the different layouts that I want to display, and then I have duplicated that layout to use as the "un-editable" layout that offers different scripted buttons etc. I have scripted movement through the tabs and layouts with buttons, so that it doesn't appear to be a tabbed environment.

The problem that I am having is that one of my buttons is supposed to switch layouts, go to a particular tab, and then enter Find mode. It does all of this great, but once in find mode, none of my fields are editable. It is like they are locked. You can't click to select them or enter anything in to them. Once out of Find mode, you can once again enter anything into them.

2.) My second issue is that I would like to have a global search box. I have fields such as the typical first name, last name, phone, etc.., but I would like the users to be able to enter anything they would like into this "global" search box and it search across all fields and records. So if they enter in "Joe", it will search for "Joe" in every field. If they enter 555-1212, it will search every field until it finds a match. I have looked everywhere for an answer to this, and either I'm too much of a novice to understand what I am looking at is the answer, or I'm not looking in the right places.

I appreciate any help to this, and would be willing to share what I have so far, if needed, to get this thing going.

Lincoln

[bcooney]

1. The first thing to check is Field Behavior's Find checkbox is selected.

2. Global search. Many threads here on such a technique; have you searched? ( Here's one ) However, it's a bit "hard-coded" and possibly limiting.

I want to comment on your setup, though. You mention a tab-panel with different "layouts". You mean a tab-panel that has portals or related fields to other tables, right?

I bring this up, because Finding in a portal will limit your results to children recs of the parent table.

Also, you can only Find in one table at a time.

Edited January 24, 2009 by Guest

[Lincoln Nail]

Thank you bcooney!!

The field behavior checkbox was it! I knew I was missing something simple.

I had read the "Global Search" thread you suggested previously, however I didn't feel that it matched my scenario. It seemed to me that in the referenced scenario, he either had multiple fields that held the same type of data (i.e. Contact1Name, Contact2Name) instead of using multiple records for the one type of data, or he had multiple tables with the same field in each unrelated table. Like I mentioned earlier though, I may not know what I am looking for.

In my DB I referenced, Layout1 has a tab panel with buttons that navigate through the tabs. I duplicated that layout and used text boxes that referenced the data, as a "viewing only" layout that can then be unlocked and sent back to "edit" layout.

I currently haven't placed any portals in yet, but do plan too later, and may be back with more questions then. :

I want to place a "search" box in my header that an end-user can enter in and do a "global" search of all fields within the table, and it will find all records that reference the search terms, whether the found terms are in fieldA, fieldB, or fieldC, etc, and whether or not they are numbers, or letters, etc.

If the article does stat what I need, then to clarify, I need to create a text field that concatenates the text from the fields I want searchable, and then I would..? .. use that field in Find mode to find all referenced fields?.. this is where I get a little lost. Once again, it will probably be something simple that I am just not comprehending at the moment.

Thank you for your guidance! You have been an extreme help already.

lnail

[bcooney]

How about this thread? And the term for this technique, which'll help you search is "Spotlight".