How many people are happy with the actual AutoSearchFields?

rbuser

Hi,

I would like to know how many people are happy with the actual situation
about the AutoSearchFields and the AutoSearchDialogs.

I tried a lot of time since RB 5 to ask for an improvement of their
capabilities, for example:

1. Have the possibility to define for the autosearch field a lookup table
from which retrieve values to be showed in a combo box.
2. More flexibility on the contition for the field. Now you can only specify
one condition (equal between, in list, etc.) but could be better to have a
dynamic control on it.
3. The dialog box that appears is a little bit confused, with edit controls
not aligned to the same column
4. The tabs that appears in the dialog contain the table name. If you want
to have a different text on it you have to rename the tabel and then you are
forced to use the new string in RAP.
5. etc.

The answer from RB was always about the possibility to register new dialog,
new query wizard dialog in order to get them as we want but the major
problem is on AutoSearch fields that have to be modified to store additional
information. I tried to have a look at the possibility to modify them but it
is too hard.

I would like to have these and additional features in the standard RB,
without the necessity to create custom objects.

What's your thought, folks?

Antonio Budano

digitalmetaphors

Hi Antonio,

Thankyou for the suggestions to enhance autosearch.

You are right, the current way to implement these requests is for you to
code a custom autosearch dialog
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/tips/CustomAutoSearchDialogRB7.zip so that
you can do cool dynamic lookups on fields in list boxes. If you want to
store extra information with the report, then instead of using autosearch
field objects to try to hold extra information, then perhaps you could store
this extra information in the report parameters property. This would allow
you to pass any information that you want. Then when the dialog is to be
shown, you could access the report parameters to pull out a value so that
you can use it when showing the custom autosearch dialog. Have you explored
this new feature of RB? It was meant for use on the Report Server Editin,
but parameters are included in RB Standard Edition too.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

Jim,

I haven't explored the report parameters but in any case, it is not a good
way to follow if we want an end-user to be able to write reports himself.

It is something that me, as a developer can do but not possible to ask to
the end user. They only have to be trained about the structure of the DB and
how to created reports using the "standard" features of RB. In the
"standard" features of RB are included also the AutoSearch field that need
to be improved to make the user life easier.

Have you had a look at the demo I sent to the support?
I think that if we could have something like that in the "standard"
autosearch field, or any new additional classes could be great. It is only
necessary to store some information on the Autosearch fields and define few
dialogs.

Regards

Antonio

digitalmetaphors

Hi Antonio,

The last demo we received from you on file was on Jan 21, 2003 for a
question about BarCodes. Could you resend the demo and we'll take a look at
it. Send all attachments to support@digital-metaphors.com


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

Hi Jim,

I just re-sent the demo.
Please give me your opinion.

Thanks

Antonio