Search on object attributes - multiple allowed

Tom Morrison

I have an application that includes a Business Object by the name of "Asset". Assets can be things such as researcher, educator, policy maker, organization, publication, web site, etc.

Assets have several attributes, including an "Asset_type" which is another object and can have multiple occurences. In this case, the principal attribute is "name". Asset_type is used to hold the values listed in the above paragraph. In fact, an Asset can be of multiple types. The "Multiple Allowed" feature works quite nicely when creating Assets that exist as multiple types.

Is it possible to create a search on "Asset" in which the possible values of "Asset_type" are listed and can be selected (one or more)? I'd like the same kind of look that exists when an Asset object is being created and a user can select one or more Asset_types.

The default search function of providing a simple text field and asking the user to enter a value seems destined for entry errors and unsuccessful searches.

Thanks!

aware_support

Try this:

Define a temporary object called, for example, AssetSearch with a multiple reference attribute to AssetType, for example AssetSearch.AssetTypes
Define the following process:

ENTER NEW AssetSearch
DISPLAY Asset WHERE EXISTS AssetType (WHERE AssetType IN AssetSearch.AssetTypes AND AssetType IN Asset.AssetTypes)

When this process is activated the form for the AssetSearch object will be displayed. The user will then add references to the AssetType(s) in much the same way he is doing it for the Asset object. These will be the asset types that the search will be performed on. The query will then run and it will find all assets that have selected asset types and display them to the user.

greg

Expanding on what Tom said about the standard search interface. Would it be possible to extend this interface in a future, hopefully not so distant, release by allowing addition of comments in html?

aware_support2

The standard search interface is a generic functionality. You can use a non-persistent object, as recommended above, for a rich search interface where you can add the desired customisation. There you can add HTML comments on the form, allow the users to select search parameters from lists of values, add parameter validation rules, etc.