Realtime filtering

[Greg Hains]

Hi.

I am looking to achieve a realtime filtering process whereby I have a drop down list displaying records of a field, and as the user types something only records with contents matching that in the field are displayed.

For example:

100 records with a field called "name" (very original I know). As I press "j" only records that have "j" in that field are displayed - not just the first letter but "j" in that records field. I then press "a" and the list shrinks as it finds "ja" etc etc.

I have seen a plugin demonstrate this (Fusion Reactor) but Im damned if I can get it going.

Whilst I now use FmPro 10 Advanced, many clients of mine still have version 9 so will stick to this version for this question. Has anybody written scripts or functions or the like that do this?

Please advise.

Greg

[Søren Dyhr]

Investigate this:

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

Since you are on fm10, should you then consider, if the:

http://fmhelp.filemaker.com/fmphelp_10/en/html/script_trigg.38.3.html

...should take care of the "Commiting"?

--sd

[Greg Hains]

Thanks SD - I will check those out.

Also, any comments on the following possible methods? I have not tried them yet (just about to), but what about this:...

A field (using Script Triggers) whereby each time the data is updated in the field (ie. typing a new character) a Find is run, and the results are narrowed a bit. I would need to fiddle with the display side of things so it went smoothly, but might yield the desired results.

Feedback please.

Greg

[Søren Dyhr]

Yes, but where is the harm done in hardwiring the request by a "forked" relationship ... my take is that the relational method is a bit faster.

In my suggetion is the script a one-liner! You can take a look at this template see how:

http://www.kevinfrank.com/download/2009/dwindling-value-lists.zip

...here are the relations a tiny bit more reluctant to obey, and a stronger potion is applied! Commit records is all it takes in your case.

--sd

[Greg Hains]

Hi Soren.

Yes, that Dwindling Filter is a very useful function, but not quite what I am looking for.

My need was more to filter down in realtime as I typed from the keyboard.

Thankyou for your input - I will be able to use this in another area.

Cheers,

Greg

[bruceR]

Do not follow Soren's advice. Wrong example files.

You can do live as you type finds, they are surprisingly fast, and they do not clutter your relationship graph, they do no require portals.

http://www.excelisys.com/web/downloads/files/SearchFilter.zip

[Søren Dyhr]

they are surprisingly fast

Indeed they are - point taken, and somewhat much simpler to program! But my pointers to Kevins template was only to show how the event trigging bit of it was done - neither the dwindling nor that it was the single narrow path to follow. I apologise inadequate lingo.

--sd

[iwasnevy]

I'm trying to solve a very similar problem. hopefuly someone can help. Bruce, that SearchFilter example file is EXACTLY what I'm looking for - I ran across it awhile ago and have been playing with it. However, what I'm trying to do is to filter portal results in this manner, and that's the part I can't figure out.

To give you a better idea of what I'm trying to do; I've got a list of clients (names) in a column on the left of the layout, and clicking on one brings up their record on the right side of the layout. I've got that part done, using a portal to a TO of the client table as the left column and assigning the portal name field as a GTRR button. Probably clunky, I know, but it's the only way I could find. Now I'm trying to filter that portal down as you type, but I haven't had much luck.

Any help?

[the_kid]

Take a look at this. It's a nice demo on portal filtering (dwindling) as you type. Is this what you're looking for?

http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/demosX/demoX03.html