FrontPage Tips by Ward Cameron Enterprises
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Add an All Values Option to your Search Form

This tutorial is part of a larger discussion on creating search forms for your FrontPage Database website. Click here to read the full tutorial.

The process involves several steps

1. Searching begins with website design

2. Create a Progressive Search Form

3. Add an All Values option to your Search Form

4. Using Drop-down Menus with Multiple Select

5. Add a Text Search Field Using the DRW

6. Search Multiple Fields in the Same Table

7. Search Multiple Fields or Tables in the Same Database

In the first section of this tutorial, I showed you how to create a progressive search page. Now, we'll modify it a little bit to add an all values option to the drop-down lists. By doing this, you increase the options for your site users.

For instance, if they do not know the name of a supplier, they can select an option for All Suppliers which will then take them to Step2.asp. Instead of showing just the products for a single supplier, in this case Step2.asp will show them a list of all the products regardless of supplier.

Add an All Values Option to a Numeric Field

In our situation, since we are using SupplierID and ProductID as our parameters, these are actually numeric fields. By adding an All Suppliers option to Step1.asp, you can move to Step2.asp and view a list of all the products provided regardless of the supplier. This does require a few changes in order to be effective.

Open up Step1.asp. Double click the drop-down list for suppliers. Click the Add button. Your screen should look like the following:

Click the Add button and under Choice enter "All Suppliers". Select the Specify Value option button and then enter "1 or 1" as the Value. Select Selected under Initial State. Click OK to close the Modify Choice dialog and then click the Move Up button to make sure it is the first option displayed.

When you close all of the dialog boxes, you'll see the All Suppliers option listed at the top of the drop-down list. If you select this when you view the sample search form, then Step2.asp will show all products, regardless of the supplier. Select any product from the listing, click Submit and the final screen will show you the details on that particular product.

While Step2.asp will display the first name in the Supplier Form, the actual product list WILL show all the products, regardless of supplier.

See it in action here

Add an All Values Option to a Text Field

If you want to accomplish the same thing using a text field, the steps are similar. The only difference is in the value that you place in the Specify Value field of the Modify Choice dialog. In this case, just enter a single percent sign (%). The dialog should look like the following screen shot:

Now, if you select All Suppliers (or whatever you used as a label in your drop-down list to signify your all values option, your results page will show all of the records.

All it took, was a little FrontPage Magic.

In our next tutorial, we'll show you how to use multiple-select on a drop-down list search field. Click here to read it now