For my context - fast paced parts supply - tossing up an inventory list and having a simple search routine to narrow the list, is perfect . It is sitting there on the upper right. So many php programs force you to an entirely separate search screen filled with GREP options and fields to act upon. You can do that here too, of course. But all that most of us need, well .. from discussing this with workmates, is a simple quick all-field search tool like you have on the upper right. I'm in the parts business. We don't have time to log on to some supplier's site and navigate through menus just to see if they have part #XYZ. Neither do my customers. Here you could do either.
In the normal course of my business I want to bring up the list like you have it, do a quickie search for parts that start with XYZ. (Most of our similar parts start with the same prefixes, and it is the suffixes that determine device characteristics) Or sometimes I want to do a search through description fields.
Once I have the narrowed list, then I want to click on the interesting records one by one and view the details one level further into the database to determine if this is the correct part for my application. Some companies whose searches work well put up two fields on the main screen, one for part number search and one for description search. This works well, actually. (eg www.e-sonic.com) I myself prefer to have one field does all though.
I don't have time either to sit and learn and whole new programming language in a few weeks, I already am working enough hours at Delphi and database programming at the workstation level.
Dataface is elegant and configurable, by all accounts, and I hope eventually to become a knowledgable user of this interface.
Regards,
Gord
