Sorry, if this has already been suggested, but I could not see it.
I’m just having to explain searching Servoy to a bunch of FileMaker users…
Would it be possible to get Servoy to insert "%"s and “#” into find request to make find mode more similar to FileMaker.
How this would work: There will be a property of each form (or each table, if that is possible). The default is the current Servoy find behaviour. If you set “Findmode” to “simple”, Servoy will make text searches non-case sensitive insert wildcards for matching of partial words before dispatching the search request to the database.
swingman:
I’m just having to explain searching Servoy to a bunch of FileMaker users…
Hey, swingman - thanks for your suggestion. I’m Bob Cusick, and I’ve been using FMP for over 11 years… I know what you mean!
Here’s a couple of ways to overcome the case sensitive searches:
Wait until we bundle Sybase ASA with Servoy. By default, it’s case IN-sensitive for searches;
Make a custom “controller” form that will take the place of the standard scroll bar and put a single “search” field on there (TIP: global). You can then have a “Google-like” search for whatever people need.
I still like your suggestion, though!
Also - just a FYI: when you do a search for a single DATE (i.e. ‘01/01/04’) you SHOULD prefix it with a “#”. This is because SQL stores the date AND TIME for date fields. So, when you use a “#” in front of the date - the Servoy SQL parser will put in: ‘01/01/04 00:00:00…01/01/04 23:59:59’. OR you can always include the time in your find method as well.
bcusick:
Hey, swingman - thanks for your suggestion. I’m Bob Cusick, and I’ve been using FMP for over 11 years…
Hi Bob! 11 years of FM here too!
bcusick:
2) Make a custom “controller” form that will take the place of the standard scroll bar and put a single “search” field on there (TIP: global). You can then have a “Google-like” search for whatever people need.
That’s a nice idea. In FileMaker you would create a calculated field and almalgamate all the fields into one and search on that. Is there a better was in Servoy? Maybe I should look in the how-to section.
bcusick:
the Servoy SQL parser will put in: ‘01/01/04 00:00:00…01/01/04 23:59:59’.
So you are already adding to some of the search requests
swingman:
That’s a nice idea. In FileMaker you would create a calculated field and almalgamate all the fields into one and search on that. Is there a better was in Servoy? Maybe I should look in the how-to section.
Matt Petrowsky has a great little sample to show you how easy it is in Servoy. You can BANISH the FMP calculated key approach forever!!
swingman:
bcusick:
the Servoy SQL parser will put in: ‘01/01/04 00:00:00…01/01/04 23:59:59’.
So you are already adding to some of the search requests
I agree that it would be great if we could just pass a parameter to the controller.find to tell it we want case insenstive and either “begins with” or “contains” search… or some way to have a beforeSearch event property that would allow us to iterate through the fields the user is going to search by, etc.
Although - I DO have to say - that now that I’m using more of a google-like search (a single search field) - it’s much easier for users to use and I can control the code - so it’s working out well for me so far.
Not a Filemaker developer at, so don’t know how it works there, but in standard SQl DB’s, as far as I know, searching for a value with a % in front of it, means the DB cannot use the Index on the column you’re searching in.
So, if you have a big table, doing a search like that can drastically decrease the performance… Just a thought…
pbakker:
Not a Filemaker developer at, so don’t know how it works there, but in standard SQl DB’s, as far as I know, searching for a value with a % in front of it, means the DB cannot use the Index on the column you’re searching in.
So, if you have a big table, doing a search like that can drastically decrease the performance… Just a thought…
Paul
VERY TRUE! In order to use the “%” in a search - Servoy has to generate a LIKE clause:
SELECT id FROM CUSTOMERS WHERE first_name LIKE ‘%data%’
In addition - when you use the case-insensitive operator “#” - the database is doing even MORE work:
SELECT id FROM CUSTOMERS WHERE UPPER(first_name) LIKE ‘%data%’
Although not a HUGE deal until you get into lots of rows - it’s still something worth considering.