Creating search menus

A search menu draws menu labels and values from a specified form. Use search menus to create menus that are automatically updated to reflect the current data in your system.  For example, you could build a menu that displays the names of everyone who has an open help desk request. To do so, select the Submitter field as both the menu Label and Value, and then build a qualification that searches for requests with a Status that is not Closed ('Status' < "Closed" ).

Search menu example

CallerOpenRqsts2.gif

The following screenshot shows the search menu when you enable Progressive Views on a form:

Flat_Menu.png

You can create a hierarchical search menu by defining up to five levels.

Permissions are verified at the time of the search, so users can see only the items for which they have permission. Users need to select a result displayed in the menu by either clicking on it or by using the down arrow and clicking Enter on the keyboard. 

To create a search menu

  1. In Developer Studio, select File > New > Search Menu.
  2. Select the server on which to create the menu, and click Finish.
     A new file search appears as shown in the following figure.
    New Search Menu 2102-t-01.png
  3. In the Refresh list, select the appropriate refresh mode.
     See Setting-a-refresh-mode-for-menus.
  4. In the Data Source list, select one of these options:
    • SERVER—The menu displays data from the server specified in the Server field and from the form specified in the Form Name field.
    • SAMPLE DATA—The menu displays data from a server and form that are dynamically selected at runtime according to values that users or workflow enters in certain fields. See Creating-dynamic-search-menus. Progressive Views do not support Sample Data.
  5. In the Server list, select the server that contains the form to search.
  6. Click the ellipsis button next to the Form Name field.
  7. In the Form Selector dialog box, select the form to search, and click OK.
     To shorten the list of available forms:
    • In the Name field, enter the initial letters of the form name.
    • In the Application field, select the appropriate application.
       To find a form in the Available Forms list, perform one of these actions:
    • Scroll through the list.
    • In the Locate field, enter the first characters of the form name.

  8. (For Progressive Views) In the View Name field, enter a Progressive View name.
    You can take any of the following actions when defining search menus:

    • Click the ellipsis button to select a view of type Progressive View defined on the form.
    • Enter a name of a form that already exists.
    • Leave the field empty so that you can add a name after you create a progressive view.

    You can therefore reuse a view for different search menus.

  9. Select the fields whose values will be used as menu items:
    1. Click Add.
    2. In the Field Selector dialog box, select one or more fields to use as menu items, and click OK.
       To shorten the list of available fields, enter the initial letters of the field name in the Name field.
       To find a field in the Available Fields list, perform one of these actions:
      • Scroll through the list.
      • In the Locate field, enter the first characters of the field name.
         The field appears in the Label Fields list.
    3. To change the position of the fields in the menu hierarchy, select a field in the Label Fields list, and click Up or Down.
       The first field's values are the first-level menu items, the second field's values are the second-level menu items, and so on.
       Only the first 80 characters of each field value are displayed.
       In multilevel menus, items in all levels (except the last level) that do not have a value appear blank. If the last-level menu item does not have a value, it does not appear.
       In single-level menus, if the first or last item does not have a value, it does not appear. If items in the middle of the menu do not have values, they appear blank.
  10. Click the ellipsis button next to Value Field.
  11. In the Field Selector dialog box, select the field that contains the information to load into the field when users select a menu time, and click OK.
     The maximum length of Value Field is 255 bytes, of which one byte is reserved for the terminating NULL (\0 ) character. Therefore, in case of locales that use single-byte characters, this field displays 254 characters. In case of locales that use multi-byte characters, this field displays the maximum number of characters that fit into 254 bytes. For example, if your locale uses double-byte characters, the View Field menu displays only 127 characters.
  12. Select or clear the Sort On Label check box:
    • Selected—Menu items appear alphabetically. Identical menu items are combined. For example:
      SortOnLabelOn.gif
    • Cleared (default)—Menu items appear alphabetically and are sorted by label. For example:
      SortOnLabelOff.gif
       When a search menu has a long character field (CLOB column) as a menu label, make sure that the Sort On Label check box is cleared because the database does not support sorting on CLOB columns.

  13. To limit the requests that are included in the menu, click the ellipsis button to the right of the Qualification field, and use the Expression Editor to create a qualification statement.

    Make the qualification as specific as possible to avoid creating a menu with an unmanageable number of items.
     You can use fields from the form specified in the Form Name or Sample Form Name field. You can also use keywords.
     When referencing the value of a field in the specified form, you must use the $fieldID$, not the field name. For example:

    *'Problem Summary' = $8$*

    If the qualification includes a field value from the specified form, you cannot use the character field pattern $MENU$ for any field to which the menu is attached. The server cannot resolve the field references and the field value is always rejected.

    For more information about building qualifications, see Using-buttons-and-menu-bar-items-to-execute-active-links.

  14. (Optional) Modify the menu's change history.
     See Updating-the-change-history-of-fields-forms-or-objects.
  15. (Optional) Add Help text to the menu.
     See Creating-help-for-applications.
  16. Select File > Save.
  17. In the Save Menu As dialog box, enter a name for the menu, and click OK.
     Menu names must be unique on each AR System server.
     Names can have as many as 80 characters, including spaces. Names can include double-byte characters, but avoid using numbers at the beginning of the name.
  18. Attach the menu to any character field in any form.
     See Creating-common-data-fields and Menu Name.
  19. For forms viewed in a browser, you can turn on an automatic complete feature for character fields that have a menu attached to them. See Automatically-completing-menu-entries.
    Progressive Web Application also supports the automatic complete or typeahead feature for the character fields in search menus.