Drop downs and search fields

[Stéphane Cos]

My apologies if this isn't in the appropiate place in the forums, I am totally new to filemaker and I'm stumbling a bit... So here's my problem.

I have a "simple" task to complete for class, creating a database to record the information of research journals (author, publication date, name of journal etc etc...)

What I would like to do is have a drop-down menu (so far I know how to do it) to specify which field I want to search and an "blank" field next to it so that the user can input the information he's searching. Then while hitting enter I'd like the results to show considering the data introduced.

To clarify, if I select "author" from the drop-down list then write "Descartes" in the "blank" field, I'd like the other fields in the layout (author, title, publication etc.) to be completed with the results matching the search "Descartes".

My guess is that it has to do with relationships and multiple tables, and in fact the button would be an "extra" I'd like to introduce in the database, but I think it would be a nice touch...

If anyone can/want to help, I'll be really grateful

[Lee Smith]

Hi Stéphane, and welcome to the FM Forums

Please update your profile to reflect the current FileMaker version. You do this by clicking on your name at the top right-hand corner, and then selecting My Profile. You'll see a big buttons close to the top that says edit my profile, click on that and go down to the 2nd section or FileMaker.

TIA,

Lee

[Stéphane Cos]

There, done... I must look as green as grass.

[comment]

My guess is that it has to do with relationships and multiple tables,

I don't see why - it seems it has to do with performing a find in the one table you have mentioned. If you have two global fields, one holding the name of the field to search, and the other the search criteria, you can do something like:

Enter Find Mode []

Set Field By Name [ YourTable::gFieldName ; YourTable::gSearchPhrase ]

Perform Find []

Note that Set Field By Name[] requires a fully-qualified field name in the form of "TableOccurence::FieldName".