filePro with AJAX - Article and Video

[Howard Wolowitz]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fairlight" <fairlite at fairlite.com>
To: "filePro Mailing List" <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 7:07 PM
Subject: ADV: filePro with AJAX - Article and Video


> I've written an article illustrating how one would do a fuzzy look-ahead
> name search using AJAX with filePro as a data source in a web application.
> Full code is not included, but decent flow outlines of both sides of the
> model are included in the article.  It gives you a decent idea without
> burying you in code.
>
> The article also happens to contain a link to a video where I demonstrate
> that feature working live against filePro, plus some other AJAX work I did
> on the same project.  This may prove illuminating for those interested in
> how this type of thing all goes together and the types of things you can
> do with the technology.
>
> If you're interested, you can read the article at:
>
> http://media.fairlite.com/pdf/filePro%20and%20AJAX%20-%20Making%20Magic%20Happen.pdf
>

Thanks Mark, that hit the spot right on.

To paraphrase Heinlein: "When it's time to railroad - you build railroads." 
Meaning that when everything is in place for a technology to work then it's 
time to use it.

It's time for web 2.0 and AJAX.

One question - above you talked about "fuzzy look-ahead" are you really 
doing a fuzzy search that or just doing a partial match search?

I have also been developing ALAX applications and, if anyone is interested, 
you can check out my latest at:
http://nj2.aljex.com/cgi-bin/tag.bat.

It is our (work in progress) data entry screen for truck brokers.  As you 
type into the Equipment, Customer, Bill To, Pickup Name, or Consignee Name 
fields, AJAX and filepro return the matches in a DIV on the right side of 
the screen (page.)

(Notice that the equipment type shows all entries starting with what you 
type but the other fields show only matching records.  That is the way the 
original software worked.)

Choosing a name from the list for Pickup Name or Consignee Name will fill in 
the rest of the data and "lock" those fields.
(try "american fish" in the Pickup Name field.)  The reason that the system 
doesn't choose the entry when only a single match is returned is that the 
broker is allowed to add additional locations as needed.

Currently, once all the required fields are filled in, the Save button just 
calls a script to show the environment the server / cgi program would get so 
feel free to experiment.

Any feed back would be appreciated.

Howie