ISO FileMaker Magazine

The desired result, from this particular technique, has been around as long as the feature has existed. As you type, results are shown in a filtered down listing. The fact that it can now be done within FileMaker, as long as you have FileMaker 10 or higher, makes this a "household technique".

So, you know the drill, use two or more key values (or one calculated key - as shown in this video) in your relationship in order to extract records based on the matching index between the low and high ranges of a character sequence - because even a string of text has a numerical value.

Well, that's how it essentially works - if you didn't already know. However, there's typically more than one way to solve any given problem! In this video, I take a look at the fundamental pieces of the Filter As You Type, also known as the Clairvoyance technique. I cover what can be done, where it falls short, which method to choose, and how you can really put this technique on steroids for the ultimate in performance and ease-of-implementation!

Update: Jake Traynham wrote in to tell me the following, "Near the end of this video, you mention using "LIMIT" in the SQL query. I'm guessing you didn't actually try that, because it's not going to work. FileMaker's internal SQL engine does not support the LIMIT keyword, so unless ScriptMaster is doing some manual parsing and handling of that limit... :)" - Ouch, my bad - I guess I've been working with MySQL too much lately. Fortunately, yes, you can use ScriptMaster to force your limit of what is returned. Java will handle A LOT of data, it's just that it still has to come over the wire since FileMaker's SQL does not support LIMIT - too bad. Unless ScriptMaster, on the server side, will do the limit before being sent to the client - which would require some testing - of which I didn't do!