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MORE POWER TO THE USERS
Those pesky keyword lists
By Brent Hawthorne
Ever get tired of making changes to a static keyword list? Ever have users complain about the lack of control available from the ever-expanding open keyword lists? There are alternatives that allow your users to have a controlled list of keywords, but keep you from having to go back into the code every time a list needs to be changed. I'm going to show you one way to do this that will let you pass management of those lists off to your users or administrators.
Setting a keyword list up for user management involves very little extra work, and offers great returns (especially in time). While it's not perfect for all situations, it's great for most.
There are four steps involved in setting up a keyword list, and once the first two are completed, they're there for all your configuration needs across the application.
Setting up a keyword list
To set up a keyword list, you must first create a configuration form, shown in Figure A.
FIGURE A
 
Here's an example of a minimal configuration form that can be used for managing list values. Roll over picture for a larger image.
I used a very simple form with only three fields:
- ListName, which is categorized as the first column in the Lookup Categories view
- Description, which, strangely enough, is used to hold a detailed description of what this document is intended to do
- List, which is a multi-value field holding the values for the keyword list. This is also the value of the second column in the view.
This functionality can also be provided through a profile document or a data dictionary, but I'll leave that as an exercise for you to try at home.
Next, design a view, as shown in Figure B, which you can use to pull the configuration information out. Here, I'm using a hidden view with an alias of Lookup Categories. This view has the list of values available in the second column and the lookup name categorized in the first.
FIGURE B
 
Pictured is a configuration view, used for looking up keyword lists and other configuration information. Roll over picture for a larger image.
With the configuration form and view in place, you can reuse them for all of the keyword lists you may want to make more manageable in the application. All you need to do is assign each keyword list a unique name to look up and add a configuration document with that title.
Now, set the keyword field properties to Editable and Use Formula For Choices, as shown in Figure C.
FIGURE C
 
This is the property box showing the keyword field settings. Roll over picture for a larger image.
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