Queries that Require User Input

data, data retrieval, query, user input, concepts

Quite often a value that a query should use in its conditions must be entered by a user at run time rather than pre-configured. For example, consider a query that finds the owner’s accounts after the owner’s name has been entered by the user. Aware IM allows configuring such a query – the configurator will need to specify the business object that the query should be looking for as well as the attributes and criteria participating in the query condition(s). However, instead of specifying a particular value of the attribute(s) in the condition(s) the configurator will need to indicate that the value should be entered at run time. When the user runs such a query in the Operation Mode Aware IM automatically generates a form where the user enters the required value(s) (in the above example - the name of the owner that the query will be looking for). After the required value has been entered Aware IM performs the search and displays the results.

A query may require several values to be specified by the user (for example, a query that finds accounts of owners with the names that start with the specified value and with balances that are greater than the specified amount). In this case Aware IM generates a form that prompts for the values of every attribute that requires input from the user.

It is possible to mix conditions that check for pre-configured values with conditions that require input from the user within a single query.

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If the user does not provide any value, the corresponding condition is not considered at all when the search is performed. For example, if the user does not provide a value of the owner’s name in a query that looks for accounts of the specified owners, the query will find all existing accounts. If the user does not provide the value of the account balance in a query that looks for the accounts of the specified owners with balances greater than the specified amount, but provides the name of the owner the query will find the accounts of the specified owner. If the user provides the balance amount but not the owner’s name, the accounts with a balance greater than the specified amount will be found. Finally, if the user does not provide values for both the owner’s name and the balance all existing accounts will be found. This capability may be quite useful in those types of searches where users only enter values for those criteria that they are interested in.