Enhanced-Search-Widget-for-FlexViewer Part II

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

All,

   I am pleased to announce the next release of my eSearch Widget.

http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=5d4995ccdb99429185dfd8d8fb2a513e

Version 2.5.1.7 - 4/19/2012
* Added ability to search (flat/standalone/no geometry) tables.
* This time all Zooming uses the same scaling (popup, datagrid, widget results, zoom to all).
* Added Relates icon/button to datagrids so that you can click on it in the datagrid to
  open relates choice dialog.
* Move all skins to a skins package for cleaner organization.
* Links that are not associated with a field now work.
* Ability to disable the relates tab in the fixed widget is now configurable.

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

All,

   I would like to request some feedback.

• Are the enhancement I am making going in the right direction?


• What do you think about them?


• I have been trying to hit some of the BIG most requested features recently but I have not heard back from the community on these.


• Is the widget getting to complicated?

[RhettZufelt]

Have not had a chance to test it out yet, hopfully this week.  However, I think the changes you made are great.

Should get a chance to test drive it thoughly soon.

As far as getting to complicated, so far, I'd say no, it's just getting better.

R_

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Rhett,

   What about printing the datagrid in the 3.0.13 release? Have you used it?

[RhettZufelt]

Just tested it to make sure that it worked.

I have passed a "test" map onto some users, am waiting for feedback on it.

Not much feedback yet, but a couple of them noticed that it showed up and really like the capability.  Mostly, they were exporting the datagrid, then printing from Excel.  this makes it easier for them.

Hope to catch up here this week, and will be able to test it fully before long.

R_

While on enhancement subject, I may have missed it, but an option to determine the export file type allowed would be nice.  Some of my users don't understand the problems with exporting to csv format with data that has a lot of commas/delimeters in it (I know we can change the separator).  Would be nice to force them to only have text as the export format.  Maybe a _enableCSVExport and a _enableTXTExport or something so visibility can be set separately for each?  Of course, this is easy for me to just hardcode in the mxml, and not sure how much need there is, but would be nice.

[AnthonyGiles]

Robert,

I think the additions you are adding are excellent, as for getting to complicated I don't think so. People can choose to make the configuration complex but if they just want a simple search they do not have to make use of all the functionality available.

One enhancement that would be good, not sure how hard it would be to implement though, would be when setting up the expressions having an attribute called fieldType in the value tag that could contain text,number,date,combo and depending on what is set would determine the UI element used in the widget, i.e:

text -- TextInput Control
number - NumericStepper control
date -- DateField control
combo -- ComboBox control

this would force the users to use the right format and hopefully avoid errors

Keep up the good work

Regards

Anthony

[RhettZufelt]

Hey Robert,

Been playing with the latest version a little and can not get the uniquevalsfromfield expressions to populate with the blank, doesn't matter what isvaluerequired is set to.  the userlist it is appending the blank when false but not the uniquevalsfromfield.

Also, curious how one is supposed to make the popup be the same as clicking on the map?  I have tried adding the same service I am searching to the map as both type feature and dynamic, setting my desired popup.xml file for each.  Have tried combinations of <popupsdisabled>true</popupsdisabled> true/false.  Basically, if set to true, I do not get the popup when I click/doubleclick on the data grid or results list but I do get one (actually two) when I click on the selected feature,  it will give me the esearch popup as "1 of 2" and it is the popup info as configured in the esearchwidget.xml.  The second one is the popup that follows my popupconfig.xml.

So, was wondering how this is supposed to work, and what one needs to do to get it working that way?

Thanks again,

R_

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Rhett,

   

curious how one is supposed to make the popup be the same as clicking on the map?

I should have explained this one better. My statement

The popup shown from the search results and datagrid is the same popup that gets
displayed when you click on the search graphic on the map.

notice my bolded text, search graphic not a popup.xml that you define in the main config.xml for a layer.  As far as the uniquevalsfromfield adding a blank I had this
fixed at one point them made some more code changes to account for a possible empty string value being in the data and I broke it again. But I now have it fixed again. Please re-download the widget.

[RhettZufelt]

Rhett,    I should have explained this one better. My statement  notice my bolded text, search graphic not a popup.xml that you define in the main config.xml for a layer.

I see.  Guess I thought it was always the same popup when fired anywhere from the eSearchWidget.

  As far as the uniquevalsfromfield adding a blank I had this fixed at one point them made some more code changes to account for a possible empty string value being in the data and I broke it again. But I now have it fixed again. Please re-download the widget.

Good to hear this as I was a little concerned that I was doing something wrong as I couldn't repeat the results on your test site, even though it was reporting the same version (thus another unmodified test app).  And yes, it appears to be fixed now.

Have noticed an issues still with getting the uniquevalues from field option. 

* Fixed bug where if more than one uniquevalsfromfield was used in an expression Only one would populate the dropdown. 

This appears to still be the case IF the layer with more than one is the first layer listed in the eSearchWidget.xml.  It will populate one of the dropdowns only.  Used to be I had to select a different layer/expression, then back and it would populate the "next" box, then had to do it again for each value that was using uniquevalsfromfield.  Well, now when I navigate back to it, it will populate ALL of them.  OR, if I set that layer as something other than the first layer, it will populate them all when I "choose" it from the dropdown.  So, it appears as if it is not populating ALL of the uniquevalsfromfield dropdowns at once if the layer is loaded by default, but only if the layer is selected by the dropdown.

R_

[RhettZufelt]

As far as the uniquevalsfromfield adding a blank I had this fixed at one point them made some more code changes to account for a possible empty string value being in the data and I broke it again. But I now have it fixed again. Please re-download the widget. 

This brings up a good point/question:  What happens if I have the value "all" in my data?  Will selecting "all" just query them, or everything in the list?

R_

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Rhett,

   This confusion is why I was hesitant about adding the "all" to the unique value list when you asked for it. So what I ended up doing is when I see the all chosen in the unique value dropdown I just do a 1=1 query (basically giving you everything as that is what all unique values would be).

BTW Version 3.0.14f is now available with the fix for the first query layer having multiple uniquevalsfromfields