Look Aheads allow designers to create field lookups for runtime users. Look Aheads allow users to replace existing records add new records with the values chosen from Search & Select action results or cells from the workbook. For example, a user can look up the account name when they are adding a new opportunity to the app. You can design two types of Look Aheads: 

  • Online: these lookups are real-time environment data and are more flexible than offline. See the procedure for details.
  • Offline: these lookups are for data that is already available in Excel (it might have been placed there from any source). For example, from a data invoking action (Query or Search and Select), data that was already in the template, or data that is generated from a macro into a list and made available to the offline lookup feature.

Look Ahead can be configured ONLY for Lookup Name fields. By default, the Search and Select (Online) is made available to configure Look Ahead. If there are no existing Search and Select actions, you can create a new Search and Select action using the new Look Ahead dialog.

Prerequisite

Before creating a field lookup, you must have an existing field mapping in a Display or Save Map.

To create an online lookup

 A Search and Select Action on the object that corresponds to the lookup value field must exist. For example, if you need an account lookup, there must be a Search and Select Action on the Account object.

  1. Click Display Map. 
  2. Select a Display Map and click Edit. The Display Map panel opens.
  3. In the Mapped Details section of the Display Map pane, click the magnify icon  to open lookup properties for that field.
  4. Select Search And Select (Online).
  5. Select the applicable Search and Select Actions.
  6. In the Mapped Record ID field, select the record ID field and click Save.

    This ensures that the correct lookup will be returned to the record. To remove an existing Online Lookup, click Remove.



  7. Click Close.

To create an offline lookup for single column

  1. Click Display Map.
  2. Select a Display Map and click Edit. The Display Map panel opens.
  3. In the Mapped Details section of the Display Map pane, click the magnify icon  to open lookup properties for that field. The X-Author Designer window opens.



  4. Select the Excel (Offline) radio button.

  5. From Range Selection, click Get Current Selection and highlight the list values in the worksheet.

    The first time a lookup is initiated by the end user, the lookup function loads data from the worksheet and stores it in the Lookup window for quick results on successive lookups. If you expect changes in lookup data, then refresh the lookup fields every time you load the lookup by selecting the Refresh data on every load check box.

  6. Click Save.