Searching and Filtering

This is a quick tutorial showing how easy it is to find the data you are looking for in dbFront.  You can go to the Simple & Advanced Searches knowledge base article to get more detailed instructions.

Transcript

Simple Search

Finding data in dbFront is very straight forward because every table has a search box at the top left corner.  Just type the values you are looking for and dbFront will find it.  The values should be separated by spaces and can be entered in any order. 

In this first example, we are looking for a "black helmet" in our product table.  So I enter "black helment".  As soon as I start typing, dbFront will start filtering down the rows.

The product table that we were looking at was small enough that dbFront could load it into memory and do the filtering as I typed each character.  This makes the process of finding specific records very fast and intuitive.

If the table we are looking at happens to be too large to load into memory, then dbFront will not respond until I hit the enter key in the search text box.  At this point, dbFront will send the request to the server and return the filtered results.  This is done to avoid overloading the servers.

As an example of searching within a larger table we are going to look for a customer whose name we don't remember but we know it was "westcycle" or something like that.

So we open the customer table and type "westcycle" and hit the enter key but find nothing.     

So we try "west" and hit the enter key, which gives us a large list.  

Then we add "west" as a separate word and hit the enter key to get the result we are looking for.

The only limitation to quick searches is that they are limited to the columns that are displayed in the table.

Advanced Search

dbFront also includes the ability to do advanced searches.

The Advanced Search pane can be found directly underneath each table.   The only exception will be if your administrator has removed all advanced search fields.  When you click the Advanced Search pane it will open to reveal all of the possible fields you can search on.

Date and Numeric fields will automatically allow you to enter start and end values.

In this case, we are looking for customers that have had more than $10,000 worth in sales while selling more than 100 of our products.

As you enter values and tab to the next you will see dbFront immediately filter the results and also add a small widget to the Advanced Search title bar to indicate what your results are filtered on. 

When you click on some data that interests you the Advanced Search pane will automatically close.

Advanced Searches will remain in effect even if you switch to another table and back...

If you want to remove one of the filters you can easily click on the close button beside the specific value and the search will immediately update.

Like the Quick Search, Text fields allow for partial matches and wildcard characters.

Full-Text Search

dbFront supports Full-Text search in both the Simple and Advanced Search.  Any fields that have been configured for Full-Text search will automatically be queried using the special configured Full-Text indexes.

So now you can go forth and search...

Thank you