Digital-Clay Community Forum

Currently an item filter apparently searches for the string entered by the user found anywhere in the name of the item.

For example, in a list of companies, if a user starts typing in the letters "rock", he will get American Rock Company and potentially many others before getting to his desired company: Rockland Wood Company.

There is another algorithm which filters by "starts with" so that when a user types in "rock", as each letter is typed, he will see items beginning with r and then only those beginning with ro, and so forth. However, this possibility appears to only be available in a popup form which has options for "contains", "=", "starts with", etc.

Is there a filter or way to filter through the "starts with" method as described above without having to open another popup box and to select there "starts with" and then to enter letters and then to click ok, etc....?

Sorry, I didn't understand this. To filter by a string found anywhere in the name of the item you have to open the exact same popup form and choose "Contains" instead of "Starts With". What do you mean exactly by an "item filter" that doesn't use this popup form? All string filters use this form.

Yes, all string filters use this form. However, let me try to explain in a different way:

We have a table called "Entities" and a table called "Contacts." If I use the search filter "Entity:Name" or "Entity:" or "Name Keyword", I get a popup box where I can select "contains" or "starts with" and then enter a string.

In contrast, there is also a search filter called "Entity" for which all of the entities appear initially in the filter values box. As I begin to enter letters of a string in the text entry field below the filter values box, the filter values box only displays entities that contain the string inputted. There is a similar filter "Contact" for the "Contacts" table as well. For this type of filter, I did not get a popup box--I just start typing a string and the filter values box instantly begins to filter.

We would like to use this kind of filter but instead of instantly filtering for entities which contain the string, we want to see the entities which start with the string.

This is a much more logical thought process, like when looking up a word in the dictionary. You start with the first letter, then the second, and so forth until you find the matching word.

More clear now?

Thanks for clarifying. It's all semantics. What you are referring to is the search box under the filter values which doesn't actually filter the search results, but 'filters' the filter values.

Changing the behaviour of the search box is out of the question because it is used for a slightly different purpose by many customers.

But the solution for what you requested is simple: Just click on the listbox containing the entities and start typing. It will automatically find the first entry that matches the letters you type within a certain time limit. Since the entries are alphabetically sorted, this will also position the list within the area that contains all entries beginning with those letters.

Indeed, that is amazingly simple! Thanks.