Adding Autocomplete lookups to your Request form

In System/Request forms, select the Request form to which you want to add the Lookups, by clicking on “Options” and then select the “Edit lookups” mode using the Mode drop down in the top right corner of the screen. If you are carrying on from the Pre and Post lookups above simply select the “Edit lookups” mode using the Mode drop down.

The screen that displays shows all of the fields in use in your RefTracker form to which Autocomplete or Dynamic Lookups can be applied. Autocomplete Lookups can only be used with text box fields, so the Autocomplete list column provides dropdown lists that allow you to select appropriate Autocomplete lookups based on that field, next to each text box field so that an appropriate Autocomplete Lookup function can be selected for use with that field where appropriate.

A typical Autocomplete Lookup would be to ensure that a Matter number that has been entered is a valid Matter number by checking it against the firm’s matters database. The data source being looked up is defined by the Lookup definition selected here. New Lookups can be created in System>Lookup menu>Lookup definitions, if an appropriate Lookup definition does not already exist.

In the screen print below Autocomplete lookups have been selected for a number of fields.

The effect of selecting an Autocomplete lookup for a field is that, as the user types characters into the field of the form, the system interactively displays a list of records from the data source being looked up, that match the characters entered so far. The list becomes shorter as more matching characters are entered.

Exercise

Using the instructions above, set up any Auto-complete Lookups required by your form. Save your changes and then test your Request form. Don’t forget that data returned from your Lookup will only be saved into questions entered using your Request form, if you include the RefTracker Data dictionary fields mapped to in Systems>Lookups menu>Lookups definitions View lookups details, into your Request form Edit layout screen.