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[B&S] Search GUI

 
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Concerning what is stated in B&S Submission Application regarding the search feature (about GUI specification and the interface BD - method find), I see myself pushed to implement a search GUI wich provides all fields available in the database. Therefore:
1- I would like to know if my understanding about the GUI search behavior is correct or not.
2- Is there another possible solutions that would provide a more generic (not relied on the database fields) and commom search GUI such as MS-Word, Excel, Access, or even Eclipse?
3- If all fields in the search GUI is OK, the search dialog will be exactly the same the ones that refer to "Add new record" and the "update record". This behavior, wouldn't bring a kind of confusion to the user? Is this a bad GUI implementation practise? So, how to solve this problem?

Thanks a lot,

Rod
 
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Hi Rod,

Search this forum for some recent (last month) discussions about what fields to search.

I think it is not necessary to present all database field as search fields in the UI. Only Contractor Name and Location are required. I decided to add Service too, since the business scenario seemed to point that it was an item of interest of the users.

For number of employees, hour rate and customer ID, there is not the slightest hint in the instructions that these are needed. You will probably not be penalized for making them searchable, but it won't give you extra credit neither.

You also mention dialogs for updating and creating records. The instructions don't seem to require those. Think again if you really need those. The mere fact that you have to implement a create() method does not mean that this method must be used by your UI.

Frans.
 
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Remember:

1. You MUST do what the instructions say you MUST do*;

2. You CAN do more, but you will earn no extra points, and you add code that could potentially misbehave;

3. Refer to Rules 1 through 3.


*Perhaps making a list of the "musts", copied directly from your instructions, would be helpful.
 
Rod Abreu
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Thanks a lot Frans,

But what should I understand about this statement:
"It must allow the user to search the data for all records." and the argument in the find method (String[] criteria)? This doesn't force me to provide all fields besides of the name and the location fields where from these two I must:
1- To provide an exaclty match
2- provide an "OR" and an "AND" search
---
Rod
 
Frans Janssen
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Originally posted by Rod Abreu:
But what should I understand about this statement:
"It must allow the user to search the data for all records." and the argument in the find method (String[] criteria)? This doesn't force me to provide all fields besides of the name and the location fields where from these two I must:
1- To provide an exaclty match
2- provide an "OR" and an "AND" search



You can leave all the fields your are not using in year search empty (or null). According to the interface declaration, null fields must not be used when searching.

I used AND-type searching in my assignment, because it seems to be more common than OR-type searching. Furthermore, AND-type searching matches with the find-method in your interface; for OR-type searching you will need to make multiple calls to search (or use empty parameters in your search) and do some post-processing.

Frans.
 
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