I was wondering is it somehow possible to restrict search in MairlistDB by type (maybe if search form had a Type(Music/Jingles/Advert) column, because there can be a lot of elements in database with similiar names and that makes the search more difficult and consumes more (valuable) time.
The short answer is ‘no, there is no way to “restrict” a mAirListDB search by Type.’ Though I agree, it would be a useful feature.
The slightly longer answer is ‘try using a different search term.’ This can often help. And sometimes, a shorter search term works better than a longer one: it depends on the contents of your mAirListDB database.
The full answer, though, is: why does your mAirListDB contain ‘a lot of elements … with similar names’? mAirListDB search only looks in the Title and Artist fields. If you have ‘a lot’ of items with very similar Titles or similar Artists, then I would say that is the real problem!
For example: if your jingles all have titles like ‘jingle1’, ‘jingle2’, ‘long jingle’, etc. then you are asking for trouble if you expect to be able to find them easily later. Much better to give each jingle a more descriptive title like ‘station-name short sting’, ‘show-name feature-name intro’, ‘station-name long donut’, and so on.
Also, for ads, use the client name as the Artist, and give each ad. a title, ideally including the month they were first broadcast: ‘Playhouse Theatre - Madness Tour July 2009’ is MUCH better than ‘stationname - Playhouse ad. 1’.
Taking a little time and trouble to give every item a sensible name BEFORE you add it to your mAirListDB will make our life much easier. If most or all of your items are MP3 or a similar tagged format, use a tag editor BEFORE import to do this. I am very careful to do this (some of my colleagues would say ‘paranoid’ ;D) and it really does help.
Buit as I said to start with, sometimes it WOULD be helpful to limit a search by Type. If I remember correctly, the mAirListDB search function was written before Types were added to mAirList.
BFN
Cad