The Searchlight feature is tied to the custom forms module and allows the database administrator to add "duplicate" check functionality to a user-defined field.

Under the Administration|Configuration you will see a "Searchlight" panel if you have purchased the Custom Forms module:

Again, this panel is only enabled with the Custom Forms module, which can be purchased as a separate add-on module to your Neoserra database.

The Searchlight feature works with both standard custom forms and/or with projects. To add duplicate check functionality to a field on your custom form, you will first need to create the form and add the appropriate single-line text or integer number field(s). It is important to realize that you cannot add duplicate check functionality to any other field types.

Once the form/project has been created, and you have added the relevant fields, then you can click on the Searchlight panel and add a duplicate trigger to a particular field:

In the first field, select the name of your newly created custom form. In the next field select the name of the field that you want to apply the trigger to, and lastly select the number of characters Neoserra should check for there to be a duplicate.

With the duplicate trigger in place, anytime a user creates a new custom form record, a duplicate warning will appear if there are any other records that match on the number of characters specified. In the example below, the first four characters entered in the reference number field matches two other records. You can hover over the records to see the specific details and make a determination if they are the same:

Or, you can continue typing the rest of the reference number, and if the remaining characters do not match any other records, then the warning will disappear:

It is important to note that the Searchlight feature only highlights the possibility of a possible duplicate record, it does not prevent the user from creating a duplicate record. It is ultimately up to the user to decide if the two records are duplicates, or not.

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