Jason:
Thank you, yes; a sample is most appreciated.
Bruce
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Catalog Search Challenge
From: Jason Kramer <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, March 27, 2012 10:33 am
To: [email protected] (RBASE-L Mailing List)
Bruce,
I have. I used X (in the case of your example, 3) variable combo boxes. Initially all three boxes were loaded with all the acceptable values from the corresponding table column. None of them used a WHERE clause. Once a combo box was used, then the WHERE clauses for the other combo boxes would be updated (WHERE col = comboboxval), so that only valid items were displayed.
This was done in a R:Base form, not web form, but you should be able to do the same thing.
This way the user could start at any point and never select an invalid combination. If you want a sample, let me know.
Jason
Jason Kramer University Archives and Records Management 002 Pearson Hall (302) 831 - 3127 (voice) (302) 831 - 6903 (fax)
On 3/27/2012 1:23 PM, [email protected] wrote:All:A design issue. The goal is a web search portal into an on-line catalog of thousands, possibly tens of thousands of SKUs of hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical parts; sprinkled across a dauntingly broad range of categories, types and classes. In which visitors can find their part FAST. Everyone comes to the site with their own mental model of an effective search path. One man's clarity is another's frustration. One visitor might envision his search path as: Hydraulic /Cylinder /Clevis-Mount Another might have in mind: Cylinder /Clevis-Mount /Hydraulic So, a Level1 > Level2 > Level3 hierarchical progression may not work. The search needs to handle Level2 > Level1 > Level3. And so forth, for a plethora of potential paths. Has anyone handled this type of 'free-form, have-it-your-way' search model? Bruce Chitiea SafeSectors, Inc.
