Full name search

[Bill Parker]

Searching on a name field using 'contains' catches most use cases. But sometimes I need to find John Smith and want to include Johnathan Smith and John A. Smith. Is there a way to use a wildcard in a list search part like 'john%smith'?

[Bill Parker]

Nevermind. john%smith works just fine!

[Russell Craycraft]

You can also get fancy with JavaScript and make all spaces convert to %.

[Bill Parker]

Actually, that had crossed my mind. I know there are some events after search criteria is submitted. But if you have info on how to do it, it would be a big help!

[madtowng]

it should be a simple.replace() .

I posted a simple function yesterday to convert American date format to UK date format that i’m sure uses the .replace() function.

[madtowng]

I really try to give better responses.
The code below works but really misses a lot without the formatting.
To see what it looks like in color, with formatting, and be able to test it
as you desire, Look Here

// replace all spaces with a %
var names = [{'fullName':"John A Smith"},{"fullName":"Jonathan Smith"},{"fullName":"John D Rockefeller"}]
names.forEach( (n) => {
      n.fullName = n.fullName.replace(/ /g,'%')
    }

  )

console.log(names)
// find all pairs than contain the name John  
var filtered = [];
filtered = names.filter( (n) => {
    return n.fullName.toUpperCase().includes('JOHN')
  }

)

console.log(filtered)​

[Bill Parker]

So you are doing client side filtering? I need to do server side filtering, regardless of where the filter statement gets modified. So I assume I need call xbasic from
listObj.searchList({xbasicAfterFilterCompute:"customizeListSearch"});

I am new at this, so I will start with a dummy function and debug to see what I find in e.searchDefinition.parameters and e.searchDefinition.filter.

[Russell Craycraft]

Here is the code. I tweaked it a little bit to only pull the first 2 letters of the first name (if there is both a first name and last name), because if the user's name is that will cover a lot of nicknames, (Joseph/Joe will not work), and if the user only uses the first name, it will pull in the full first name. It really depends on what the end goal is, and what works with the majority of the names.

Ultimately, John Smith will be jo%smith

var inputName = {Dialog.object}.getValue('textbox1');

function formatName(input) {
// Remove leading and trailing spaces
const trimmedInput = input.trim();

// Check if there is a space in the input
const hasSpace = trimmedInput.indexOf(' ') !== -1;

if (hasSpace) {
// Take the first 2 letters of the input
const firstTwoLetters = trimmedInput.substring(0, 2);

// Find the index of the first space
const firstSpaceIndex = trimmedInput.indexOf(' ');

// Get the substring after the first space
const afterFirstSpace = trimmedInput.substring(firstSpaceIndex + 1);

// Replace spaces in the middle with %
const formattedName = afterFirstSpace.replace(/\s/g, '%');

// Combine the first 2 letters, '%' and the formatted middle part
const result = firstTwoLetters + '%' + formattedName;

return result;
} else {
// If only the first name is provided, return it
return trimmedInput;
}
}

var formattedName = formatName(inputName);
{Dialog.object}.setValue('textbox1', formattedName);

[Russell Craycraft]

This code will just trim leading and trailing spaces, and put a % in the middle space if there is a middle space

var inputName = {Dialog.object}.getValue('textbox1');

function formatName(input) {
// Remove leading and trailing spaces
const trimmedInput = input.trim();

// Replace spaces with %
const formattedName = trimmedInput.replace(/\s/g, '%');

return formattedName;
}

var formattedName = formatName(inputName);
{Dialog.object}.setValue('textbox1', formattedName);

[madtowng]

I think we're trying too hard here.
Bill had a question about how to perform a search filter that would return values with wildcard.
While server-side or client-side wasn't specified, the % in the example supplied suggests SQL.

Bill, are you trying to get this data filtered directly from your database, or are you trying to filter
the list control ?

[Bill Parker]

Yes, this search will be directly against SQL backend. I prefer doing this in AfterFilterCompute code since it does not require adding objects to the UX, Lee Vasic has an idea of adding a hidden variable. User would type into the on-screen field which would populate the hidden variable, replacing any space with %. The hidden variable is used when the search is submitted, so no server xbasic is required. Clearing the search just needs to clear both the hidden and visible fields.

While I might prefer the former, I know I can do the latter.

[Russell Craycraft]

This seems pretty straightforward, and I think I could help you over Zoom or Skype in no time if you'd be willing to show me what you're working on. Maybe the lack of being able to see your project is tripping me up.

[Bill Parker]

Already complete. This is the onChage code

var str = {dialog.Object}.getValue('SEARCH_Name');
var replaced = str.replace(/ /g, '%');
{dialog.Object}.setValue('Search_NameH',replaced);
{dialog.object}.getControl('Person_list2').searchList({searchMode : 'auto'});

Search is now on Search_NameH field.

[madtowng]

Is now a bad time to say this will also return John Blacksmith ?

[Bill Parker]

Not a problem, as long as the result set is reasonably small, and includes their target. I also am not escaping a literal % in the search string, which could be done.