Grid Tricks - Clearer Search Results

Where is numbers 1, 2 & 3 Tricks?  We can simply treat #1 as the More Objects inside a Cell blog, #2 as the Various Images II blog and #3 as the Transparent Grid blog.

I decided to start showing some more tricks I do on my side using grids which I deem will be useful for others as well.  This is about making the search result clearer or more visible by highlighting the cell contents where a near match can be found.  If not, it is very tiring for the user's eyes to trace where exactly those near matches are.

Actually, this entry is partly because of recent exchanges of ideas about the tricks and method in searching.  What I wanted to show here is when you have several columns to look at and if the value in the search box can come from any of those columns, how can we easily distinguish where the near matches are?  This trick aids visually the user just about that.  Here is a sample code for this:

Local oForm

oForm=Newobject("Form1")

oForm.Show

Read Events

Return

Define Class Form1 As Form

      Height = 390

      Width = 770

      AutoCenter = .T.

      Caption = 'Clearer Search Results'

      ShowTips = .T.

      _cSearch = ''

      Add Object grid1 As Grid With ;

            GridLines = 0, ;

            Height = 328, ;

            Left = 10, ;

            Top = 50, ;

            Width = 750,;

            GridLines = 3,;

            DeleteMark = .F.,;

            GridLineColor = Rgb(192,192,192),;

            FontName = 'Tahoma',;

            FontSize = 8

      Add Object label1 As Label With ;

            top = 15,;

            left = 10,;

            caption = 'Search',;

            Backstyle = 0

      Add Object Text1 As TextBox With ;

            top = 10,;

            left = 55,;

            Height = 23,;

            Width = 300,;

            value = '',;

            ToolTipText = 'Start typing to search matching records,'+;

            ' Double-click to clear search'

      Procedure Load

            Set Talk Off

            Set Safety Off

            Close Databases All

            Select  company,contact,Title From (Home(2)+;

                  "data\customer") Where .F. Into Cursor junk1 Readwrite

      Endproc

      Procedure grid1.Init

            With This

                  .RecordSourceType = 6

                  .RecordSource = 'junk1'

                  .Column1.DynamicForeColor = ;

                        'IIF(thisform._cSearch $ UPPER(company),RGB(255,128,0),RGB(0,0,0))'

                  .Column2.DynamicForeColor = ;

                        'IIF(thisform._cSearch $ UPPER(contact),RGB(255,128,0),RGB(0,0,0))'

                  .Column3.DynamicForeColor = ;

                        'IIF(thisform._cSearch $ UPPER(title),RGB(255,128,0),RGB(0,0,0))'

                  .Column1.DynamicFontBold = ;

                        'IIF(thisform._cSearch $ UPPER(company),.T.,.F.)'

                  .Column2.DynamicFontBold = ;

                        'IIF(thisform._cSearch $ UPPER(contact),.T.,.F.)'

                  .Column3.DynamicFontBold = ;

                        'IIF(thisform._cSearch $ UPPER(title),.T.,.F.)'

            Endwith

      Endproc

      Procedure Text1.DblClick

            This.Value = ''

            Zap In junk1

            Thisform.grid1.Refresh

      Endproc

      Procedure Text1.InteractiveChange

            Local lcSearch

            lcSearch = Upper(Alltrim(This.Value))

            Thisform._cSearch = m.lcSearch

            Select company, contact, Title From Home(2)+"data\customer" ;

                  Where Upper(cust_id+company+contact+Title);

                  LIKE '%'+m.lcSearch+'%' Into Cursor junk2 NOFILTER

            Select junk1

            Zap In junk1

            Append From Dbf('Junk2')

            Go Top

            Thisform.grid1.Refresh

      Endproc

      Procedure Destroy

            Clear Events

      Endproc

Enddefine

The tricks employed here is via using DynamicForeColor and DynamicFontBold properties of a column.  Another thing you have to notice here is my use of a form property because local variables go out of scope.

Well, those are just 3 simple things to look for.  Now go employ this trick on your end.

Cheers!