Accessing auto-generated IDs in formula-fields & Enabling keyword-indexing for search

We are happy to announce the availability of two new features which have been requested by many users recently.

1. Access to auto-generated ID in formula-field expressions
2. Support for keyword-indexing, enabling better search

Access to auto-generated ID in formula-field expressions.

iFreeTools Creator is built-for and hosted-over Google App Engine. Each record stored within the BigTable datastore of App Engine has its own unique key, which is automatically generated. (Note: This key-id value is not guaranteed to be increasing in sequential-order, but for uniqueness alone).

Until now it was not possible in iFreeTools to make use of this auto-generated key-id in formula fields, as this will not be available when the new record is yet to be saved into the database. But we have now made this possible by allocating the id values and making them available via a new function key_id, detailed below..

key_id 
Usage : key_id(instance=None)
Description : Returns a key-id for the currently added / modified record, if instance parameter is not supplied. If instance parameter is supplied, returns the key-id for the instance.
Example : 
key_id() returns the currently added / updated records key-id 
key_id (val("Customer")) returns the key_id for the Customer field, assuming Customer is a reference attribute.

You can make use of this key_id function in your formula fields to generate a visible unique-id for your data. May be, a issue-id / ticket-id / customer-id / etc.,. like Ticket ID having a formula expression as "TICKET-" + str(key_id()) will generate values of the form TICKET-42322212, assuming you enable keyword-indexing for this field (see below), you can quickly search for this ticket from the full database.

Support for keyword-indexing, enabling better search

Extending our earlier support for alphabetical-indexing, supported in Single-line text (String) and Lookup (Reference) data-type attributes, we have now added support for indexing the keywords.

This has been added for attributes of Single-line text (String), Multi-line text (Text), List (with String values), Lookup (Reference) and numeric data-types..

 

When a field is marked for keyword-indexing, iFreeTools will split out the words from the field and store them in a keyword-index, when the record is saved to the database. Later, when searching for records in the list views, apart from the instant-search within the loaded batch, you will be provided with an option to search for the keywords from all records in the database.

While new records will be automatically indexed for the keywords, for older records, you can use the Re-Index All option available under More Actions in the list views.

Hope you like new features. Keep sending in your suggestions on how you believe we can improve your favorite online database app.

Custom Views now support Template Criteria for User References and Date/DateTime fields

There are some pre-created views in iFreeTools CRM like My Open Leads, My Open Cases and My Pending Tasks which lists the records, based on the user who is currently logged-in and accessing the application, showing only the records owned by them in that view.

While one can created Custom Views providing specific user references, there was no way to create a view with such dynamic values referring to the currently logged-in user.

Similarly, while there are pre-created views like Due Today, Due Tomorrow (in Tasks module), which lists the records based on the when the view is getting accessed. Until now, it was not possible to create such views using the Custom Views in iFreeTools.

But now, we have now added support for using dynamic filtering criteria values in Custom Views, for User reference attributes and date, date-time attributes.

Dynamic User-reference values in Custom Views

While you still have options to choose specific user references, when adding Custom Views, you are now provided with an option to choose dynamic values, as shown in the image below..


Choosing the option adds the criteria as a template value - ${user}, referring to the currently logged in user..


This template criteria value will be replaced dynamically, when users access the Custom View.

Dynamic filtering for Date, DateTime fields using Custom Views

Until now we did not support date and date-time fields in Custom Views. This was due to certain limitations in the querying capabilities of Google App Engine. While the limitations remain, we have overcome them to enable you to create Custom Views providing dynamic criteria values for date, date-time fields.

You can now filter out records using on the following dynamic criteria values..

${today}, ${tomorrow},
${this_week}, ${last_week}, ${next_week},
${this_month}, ${last_month}, ${next_month},
${this_year}, ${last_year}, ${next_year}

as shown in the image below..

Here again, the template criteria value will be replaced dynamically, when users access the Custom View.

This date/date-time filtering feature in Custom Views internally uses indexes for querying the data. These indexes for database records are something like an index in books, helping you find the required records.

While new data will be automatically indexed, existing data has to be updated at least once, so that the records can be indexed automatically.

One can trigger indexing from the list views by selecting one or more records and then clicking on More Actions > Re-Index.

Hope you like the new template-criteria based Custom Views.

There are no upper limits on the number of Custom Views one can add to our GAE(Google App Engine)-hosted Free CRM for Google Apps and to our GAE-hosted Online Database App Builder. So, feel free to add as many views as you would like and do send in your suggestions on how you think the apps can be enhanced to make it even more useful.

Would you like to have iFreeTools deployed onto your Google App Engine account? Yes, we offer custom deployment options, starting at $99/year for upto 25 users, enabling you to use the free quota (1 GB of storage and 2000 emails/day) offered by Google and to buy more resources as per requirements, directly from Google. Contact raj@sahasvat.com for more details.