Originally posted by Mike Ottinger:
Hi Aaron,
I implemented the searching using combo boxes. I felt, even with a potential increase in names and locations, that this approaches was still tenable. I had two drop-downs, one for name and location each. Then a radio button indicating a search mode of 'any' or 'both', defaulting to 'any'. With drop-downs, the user input is controlled, thus removing the need for me to do any intensive validation of search terms. Hope this helps...
Thanks Mike. Your reason for using combo boxes was very sound to me. I will most likely follow that approach. Was concerned about the increase in names and locations, but after looking at the data I was supplied with, there were only 12 different locations, and 8 different names. So like you said, any increase in names/location won't affect usability. The search mode of 'any' or 'both' is also a good one. So if the name was Fred, the location was Atlantis and the search mode was 'any', then all records with name Fred will be returned (regardless of location), and all records with location Atlantis will be returned (regardless of name). And it's good that I don't need to do any
string validation on entered text, such as invalid characters, case sensitivity. I imagine going down the combo box route could save a lot of headaches later on. BTW, I haven't actually started coding functionality, just mocking up some screens on paper and in code at the moment.
