How to refresh a portal in less than 2 or 3 steps?

[gfr92y]

 

I have a portal that I will call LIST OF CUSTOMERS. (Photos #1 & 2)
 
My desire is to type the first few letters of a company's name in the global field CallReport::ChooseCustomer and click on a red square button (Photo #4) to populate the portal LIST OF CUSTOMERS with an alpha-sort of my customers' names starting with Customer2::CustomerName >= CallReport::ChooseCustomer at the top and ending with Zywux on the bottom.
 
Everything works PERFECT except the portal does not refresh such that  Customer2::CustomerName >= CallReport::ChooseCustomer is listed in the first row of the portal no matter how many times I click on the red square button! (The top-left red arrows on Photo #3 signify repeated attempts to refresh the portal.)
 
However, if I first click on any field, for example, in the field Additional Information shown on the right half of Photo #3, then I need only click on the red square button once for the portal to refresh and list the customer name satisfying Customer2::CustomerName >= CallReport::ChooseCustomer in the first row as desired.
 
I would be grateful if someone can tell me how to changing my programming such that after typing the first 3 or 4 letters of the company's name in the global field CallReport::ChooseCustomer I could then click on the red square button causing the portal to refresh and produce the desired outcome.
 
That said, it would be really cool if I could type "K" and K-Line, the first "K" company would be in the first row; type "L" and Kline would now occupy the first row; type "O" and Kloke would grace the first row.
 
However, if the it too complicated for me to understand, using the little red square button is just fine.
 
Thank you for any assistance you could provide me.
 
Sincerely,
 
Joe

 

Edited August 4, 2015 by gfr92y
Organized it better

[comment]

How about this way?

 

AlphaComp.fp7

[gfr92y]

 

WOW!

I can't wait to dissect it and learn your secrets!

Thanks!

I will let you know how it goes.

Joe

 

 

 

[MikeKD]

That's very smart comment - will be "borrowing" that idea!!

[MikeKD]

Well that worked very nicely - huge thanks!

Is there an easy way to show every record if there's nothing in the gContactName field?

All I can think of is a 2nd unfiltered portal that's hidden when gContactName = "", but that would need a new TO which seems a bit overkill!

Cheers,
Mike

 

[comment]

I can't wait to dissect it and learn your secrets!

You'll be disappointed: the only "secret" here is KISS.

 

Is there an easy way to show every record if there's nothing in the gContactName field?

Sure. Add a calculation field (result is Text) =

Case ( IsEmpty ( gContactName ) ; Char(32) ; gContactName )

and use it as the matchfield instead of gContactName.

 

Edited August 4, 2015 by comment

[MikeKD]

Cheers - trying this now (looking up Char(32)!!!)

Thanks!

Many thanks comment - that works very well.

I don't understand why though! - does 

Case ( IsEmpty ( gContactName ) ; Char(32) ; gContactName )

Put a space in the c field if the g field is blank?

Ah; of course, just got it - I assume that "a" is a Char higher than 32.

 

Great stuff - thanks so much :-)

Mike

[gfr92y]

Comment,

I am not familiar with the three icons circled below.

Could you please tell me what they signify and how you caused them to be visible?

Thanks!

 

[Lee Smith]

http://fmhelp.filemaker.com/fmphelp_13/en/html/edit_layout.10.53.html

 

[gfr92y]

Lee, Thanks.

 

Comment, OMG! I am speechless. Great! Terrific! Thank you! Well, almost speechless.