Lookup Configuration

To access the configuration of a lookup, click either Add or Edit.

This window allows you to create a new lookup and/or modify the SQL script used to generate the data contained in the lookup screen.

  1. Enter a Name and Description that will be used to identify the lookup window.
  2. Select a Windows Caption. This is the text that displays in the lookup window's title bar.

    In the SQL Statement box enter the SQL statement or custom stored procedure you have created to be used to generate the data contained in the lookup window. For more information regarding Lookup Syntax and Usage, click here.

  3. If you are using a stored procedure check the Execute as Stored Procedure option.
  4. In the Data Source field select the appropriate data source. You can create a connection source to an external data source through the Data Source Manager. Once you create a data source, you will need to close and reopen this dialog to see your changes appear in the drop-down list. If you are accessing tables within the doclink2 database, choose the default doc-link option.
  5. Check the Cache Results on Client option to cache the data contained in the lookup. The first time a user executes a lookup in the session (which begins when the viewer is opened) the data is retrieved from the data source using whatever parameters are defined in the lookup, and is stored in memory on the client. Future calls to that lookup use the data stored in memory.

    For this reason, it is important to NOT CACHE LOOKUPS THAT ARE FILTERED BY CONTROL VALUES. This will result in the initial results set being returned regardless of future control values. Instead return all possible values from the lookup (generally filtered by USERID and/or TopLevelFolder code) and then use the Additional Filtering feature to further filter the cached results with values from Smart Form controls.

  6. Click OK to save your changes and exit.

If users complain that it takes a long time to open a lookup, look to making these changes to improve performance:

  1. If you are querying an external data source, try creating a custom cached table in doc-link to contain the data you wish to retrieve, then modify your sql and data source to point to this cached table for faster execution.
  2. If you are using a complex sql statement, try creating a custom stored procedure for faster retrieval.
  3. Cache results on the client's PC to see if this improves performance.

Lookup Manager

Lookup System Settings