Search by record ID or found count? or something?

[Thetcm]

I'm a little stumped here.

We're trying to get a version of our application that would be 100% web and would cost MUCH less, allowing us attract small companies or companies with money problems.

One of the main features our of software is the ability to print the list of produts(It's a database filled with that client's toxic product to print MSDSs and labels). Now in FileMaker it's pretty much instantaneous. In PHP it's a completely different story. While I have no problem making a list of 25 products with a previous and next buttons, the problems arise when I'm trying to load the list that will be printed.

While I can load the print page with a list of like 50 products rather quickly, I just tried to do the same thing with a list of 264 products and it failed miserably, timing out. Of course, I could put a "now loading" message and set my PHP time out time to 15 minutes in the php.ini file, but that's definitely not gonna be good for clients who have over 3000 products(and some do).

The biggest problem probably comes from the fact that I must use the same layout I use everywhere else(to show the original list with a lot of information, show a specific product with more information and allow the user to all those fields).

Right now I just use whatever was search last to do my print page.

Now after talking a bit with other programmers, we came to the conclusion that the best idea would be to gather the whole list of results(even if we only show 25 of them) and then use that array to load the print page on a layout that would have nothing but the product name.

Is that even possible? Since I put a range on my search, does it still find EVERY product, then only take the one he needs, or does he search depending on my specs, meaning he only gets 25 results no matter what?

Or any other way I could do this?

Thanks.

Now I'm gonna look into it...

[Peter (duksis3)]

Hi,

For PHP as well as for IWP the separate layout is important - make a copy of original FM layout and remove all fields not used for PHP.

Carefully thought - what really is necessary to find.

Probably you need to define special calculation field for find operation (similar like you do when check duplicates).

Try to print sheet after sheet, not all at once.

If you use Internet Explorer - change it to Safari or Firefox.

In general PHP find is interesting task and some explanations at moment I'm writing down.

[Thetcm]

Hi,

For PHP as well as for IWP the separate layout is important - make a copy of original FM layout and remove all fields not used for PHP.

Carefully thought - what really is necessary to find.

Probably you need to define special calculation field for find operation (similar like you do when check duplicates).

Try to print sheet after sheet, not all at once.

If you use Internet Explorer - change it to Safari or Firefox.

In general PHP find is interesting task and some explanations at moment I'm writing down.

I have no idea what the hell you mean by "In general PHP find is interesting task and some explanations at moment I'm writing down." and I can't force clients to drop IE.

Aside from that, I just learned you can search a layout and get information from a different layout, which is exactly what I needed. I removed just about every portal and other unnecessary info from my print layout. Now I just need to find out how to setResultLayout() for a CompoundFind.

EDIT Problem solved to some extent. I search my main layout but show result from another layout with only 3 fields and 1 portal (instead of 15 fields and 3 portals).

Loading 264 records went from timing out to taking about 5 seconds.

That's gonna have to do for now, even though I'm pretty sure 3000 record would time out, but until I get around to testing that, if you guys have other tricks, I'd be ready to try them out.

Edited August 18, 2009 by Guest

[Peter (duksis3)]

Yes, You cannot force clients to drop IE, but you can recommend switch to Safari or Firefox. 8 of 10 later will say - "what a smart guy" . Don't talk with admins, show to clients (not high specs in IT) how fast are Safari or Firefox. Especially if you combine IWP and PHP, for example via iFrame.

Are you on Safari?

Safari and Firefox have saved a lot of projects for me, where IE was "out". Especially on older and slower Windows machines. Typically I include Safari installation in overall FM project package.