Selecting values from a field to report on

[mleiser]

In a script I want to do a find, sort, print etc. I want the user to be able to choose multiple values to find, sort and report on. For example, for students grade reports, I have a field called grade. If the user wants a report on grades 1, 3 and 6, I want them to be able to choose all three at one time. How do I handle that? Even more, we have two classes per grade. For example the third grade would have 31 and 32. I may need a report on all third grades and 51. Any help? (The last part isn't as important as they can choose 31 and 32 and 51 if someone can tell me how to do that). Thanks

Mike

[Fitch]

Have you considered training the users how to do a Find?

[mleiser]

I have all kinds of labels and reports that print after you enter certain data. So I need to do this without teaching them finds with and/or.

[Fitch]

Are you needing help with creating multiple Find requests, or multiple Sort options, or both?

[mleiser]

Both. I am now considering your first comment. I can have a script, go into find mode, show the user how to do multiple finds and then continue in the script. Nevertheless, I would like to know, if you have a field with multiple values, can a user click on multiple values that can be used by the script? Thanks.

[Fitch]

Yes, you'd use a global field and format it as checkboxes. In your script you can then parse out each selected item using GetValue. You'd then create a Find request for each selected value. I'd probably use a Loop, so that I only create as many Find requests as the ValueCount of the global field.

For your Sort it's essentially the same idea, but since Sorts can't be defined programmatically, you'd have to set up your Sort script with a bunch of If/Else If statements to cover all the possible permutations. (It's also possible to create a calculated field to sort on, but that can get pretty complex.)

[mleiser]

Thanks so much. I think I'll just go into find mode in my script, let the user do the finds, and then continue. I agree with you there's no reason why a user can't do the find.

Mike

[Fitch]

I didn't mean to discourage you, although it is a little bit of work to set up. But I've done it, in fact I set up something like this last week. The checkboxes are parsed into separate Find requests, and then I leave the user in Find mode to enter other criteria as needed, so they get the best of both worlds. But they do have to know how Find works, at least the basics.