Unit
IB_IncSearch

Declaration
TIB_IncSearch = class(TCustomEdit)

Description
This control is used in order to provide incremental searching for a buffered dataset. This means all descendant components of TIB_BDataset. This includes the TIB_Query component.

Please refer to the documentation of the TIB_BDataset class for more information about how it is designed to perform incremental searching. It has additional properties and methods that will have an effect upon how this control behaves.

It is also useful to know that incremental searching is dependant upon which OrderingLink, if any, is active. The OrderingItems and OrderingLinks properties must be defined for searching to be performed.

When there is a valid OrderingLink this control will turn colors to the session's SearchingColor (cyan by default) or ReadOnlyColor (gray by default) when there is no active OrderingLink in affect.

This corresponds nicely with the IB_Grid's feature of being able to click on the column header because this guarantees that the IB_IncSearch will be able to perform the search since it depends on the OrderingLink being active.

Keep in mind that as you move from one OrderingLink to another any pending incremental search criteria is not automatically cleared out. Thus, it is possible to mix criteria from multiple OrderingLink enabled columns.

OrderingItems, OrderingLinks, OrderingLink, etc. are all documented in the IB_Dataset class. Please refer to it for more help.

This control works for text, numeric and date based columns only. With non-text columns ENTER must be pressed in order to initiate the search process. dssSearch mode systax is used to refine with. Pressing ENTER when there is not any criteria will clear it out and return all records.

With text based columns there are two possible modes. The first is like above where ENTER must be pressed in order to activate the search. The other allows searching to become activated for each individual key press. It is possible to have this KeyByKey searching wait until an nth character is pressed. This is controlled by the dataset's OrderingRefinePos property.

If the item to be searched for is fewer characters than the OrderingRefinePos is press ENTER to override this and initiate the search.

This control is case sensitive by default.

This control also responds to the case insensitivity ColumnAttribute when it is defined for the column that is currently the active OrderingLink. See the help on the NOCASE attribute of the ColumnAttribute property defined in the TIB_Statement class.

Introduced Public Properties

AllowTimeout	This property determins if the incremental search string will time out after a certain period of time defined by the dataset.
ClearOnExit	This property determins if the incremental search string will be clear when exiting of the control and remain clear until reentered again.
DataSource	Reference to the DataSource to perform actions upon.
IgnoreColorScheme	This property allows you to take explicit control over the coloring of this control without default interferance.
OnReceiveFocus	This event allows a custom action to be performed when a Focus event is received.
OrderingLink	This property causes the dataset to be ordered by a certain column when it receives focus.
ReceiveFocus	This property is used in conjunction with the AnnounceFocus property of the DataSource component.
SearchKeyByKey	When searching is being performed against a text based column it is possible to have the search begin operating a character at a time as they are pressed.
SeekNearest	Determins if the nearest record should be selected as the current record or not.