ResponseMX Database search enhancements
I’ve been busy this week enhancing ResponseMX’s database search functionality.
At the moment if you have spatial data in Oracle, SQLServer, MySQL or access databases you can configure ResponseMX to search your database records and locate points on your maps.
In ResponseMX 3 you’ll have more flexibility when configuring searches. You’ll be able to specify how records are matched. Currently if you enter ‘Abbey’ into the search form, you’ll only find records that start with the word ‘Abbey’. However, if you add <matchmethod>contains</matchmethod> inside the <search/> tag, the word Abbey could appear anywhere in field that is being searched, so if you were searching a list of addresses you’d find ‘Mary’s Abbey Road’ as well as any Abbey Roads, Abbey Streets or Abbey Avenues you might have in your database.
Also, you’ll be able to conditionally filter out certain records. This can be useful when generating pre-populated searches. Say for example you have the locations of pharmacists in your database but wanted to have two pre-populated searches, one showing those offering evening and weekend services and another showing those with daytime opening hours. In ResponseMX 3 you’ll be able to add something like the following to your search xml:
<filter>
<field>Out_Of_Hours</field>
<string>Y</string>
</filter>
This will change the search so that unless the Out_Of_Hours field contains a Y, the record will not be displayed in the search results.
By the way, both these changes will work the same if you are using database layers or are searching layers drawn from .TAB files and will work the same if you are using MapXtreme Java or MapServer.
Jon
