Portal to show search results

[Kevin Cheesman]

I'm using IWP and need a portal to show found records. It needs to be a portal as a list will not work in IWP and also I need to present the found files in a list so the user can scan down the list and find what they want.

I cannot see what I need to base the layout and portal on.

Any ideas?

[David McQueen]

Off the top, you can do a search and then flag the records so that a portal could display only the found set.Then in the portal,a OMIT button would function to destroy the flag on that particular record.

You would have to keep generating and destroying flags as different searches were done. Depending on the number of records, this could get tiresome.

Alternately, explore the concept of using calculated fields to create filters instead of FIND commands to display records in a portal.

The idea is people type in say the first several letters of a key word and all items that have those letters show up in the portal. The more letters they type in, the more the search is narrowed. You end up with a global field related to a calculated key. If you are seaching on say first name, the key would have a structure:

Left(FirstName, 1)& "return" &

Left(FirstName, 2)& " return" &

.

.

The name James would show in the calculated key field as:

J

Ja

Jam

Jame

James

You get the idea.

[comment]

you can do a search and then flag the records

You cannot flag records in a multi-user solution.

To turn a found set into a related one, explore these links:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/231005/

http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/demos8/demo804.html

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/197149/

[David McQueen]

You cannot flag records in a multi-user solution.

I wasn't thinking of multi user at the time, but actually I think you could flag records. You would have to set up user dependent flags created at log in or entry to the system. Depending on the number of users, it would be a Pita to set it up so concurrent users could be searching and displaying the same records. I still think it could be done though.

I like filtering in that scenario anyway. The original poster was talking of searches and portals, so I followed that train of thought.

[comment]

actually I think you could flag records. You would have to set up user dependent flags

That still won't solve the problem of User A attempting to flag a record being edited by User B.

[David McQueen]

That still won't solve the problem of User A attempting to flag a record being edited by User B.

Yup.

You could probably get around it trapping for errors etc., but by the time you get to that point, if there are other ways, why bother.