Enhancement reqest: Advanced Search form

Question

I would like to request another form wizard like all the great ones already there. A Advanced Search form wizard.
Basically a form that asks for a bunch of query items like those found on any Advanced Search form and depending on which ones are non-blank, constructs a dynamic query and populates a SQL query region when the Search button is pressed.
Thanks

Answer 1

From what I can tell from each of the examplesthere
is no option to specify any kind of compoundcriteria
syntax for a single field, as I pointed out in my
earlier post, e.g. where id=1 or id=2 and type=6and
type=7. That kind of thing.Right, but (IMHO) your UI is approaching the problem
too "literally" i.e. too much in terms of the
underlying SQL. You are making the user literally
think in terms of a SQL SELECT statement.I agree to some extent - it clearly looks like a query builder - but the UI provides an abstraction layer so the user doesn't have to worry about typing the underlying syntax correctly.
And remember, this is a business application - not Google. In my experience users of business applications are pretty demanding when it comes to getting at their data. Not that I want to perpetuate bad designs on anyone. I just want to make sure the user has the tools they need. And they want field level searching.
>
P.S. I've already implemented a basic searchfunction
at the top of each report page that let's the user
enter a single value that will do an 'OR' againstall
the fields in the view. It's just that the userRight, thats the way most search functions work. You
type a keyword and the system does a full-text
case-insensitive search for that keyword across a
pre-determined set of columns.
doesn't really have any control over which fieldsare
tested against the value.Another way to approach this would be to put up a
single search text field and list all the columns you
want to search across as checkboxes. User can select
the column(s) he wants the keyword to be searched
in.
Your example of multiple predicates on the same
column is a little unusual, but
where id=6 or id=7Unusual, perhaps..., until you get a request from someone that wants to find all the equipment with serial numbers between XYZ123456 and XYZ2345678. ;>)
This can be implemented as a multi select list (or N
separate text fields) where user can select/enter
each value and you go and build the resulting SQL.I've thought of making the values select lists based on valid entries that exist in the table for a couple of cases where it might be appropriate - but I need to get basic function working first.
>
Just some ideas...
ThanksThanks again for your thoughts. I have an example page on OTN that give the beginnings of my idea here: http://htmldb.oracle.com/pls/otn/f?p=36337:14 It's not fully functional yet but if you click the Search button it will throw the where clause in the text box at the bottom of the page. Let me know what you think if you get a chance.
Earl