skula

So I can do without the Enrollments table?

I was able to get the attachment... if you look you can see the four tables. I don't understand why there are four necessary, but the idea of an "enrollments" table came up in the responses AND in the sample database that I downloaded off of the website mentioned above--that database works, and I tried to copy the relationships in my own database. It just isn't working the same way. Let me know if you need any other info. Thanks!

First of all, thanks for your suggestions so far. I'm still encountering major issues, though, and would appreciate your help. I tried implementing what I want to happen with a fourth table called "enrollments", as suggested. I even downloaded a sample database from databasepros.com to reverse engineer, and copied the basic format as much as I know how to. But it isn't working like I want. Here's an attachment with an image of my relationship window so you can see what I've done so far: relatinship table.tiff Here are my problems: 1. Even though I have "allow creation of records in this table" and "allow deletion..." under the Class Rosters section of the Edit Relationship box, when I add a class to the Class Info table, I don't get a new record in the Class Rosters layout. Shouldn't it be doing that? 2. None of my portals display any information when I click on them. I have a portal in "Class Rosters" that is connected with "Enrollments" and has fields that look up student name, age, and parent contact info from the "GenInfo" table. I also have a portal in "GenInfo" that is connected with Enrollments and has fields to look up course name, time, and location from the "Class Info" table. But it's like the fields are locked... nothing at all happens when i click on anything, and I can't even input data. What the heck am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance for any and all help. Please be kind... I already feel like a dunce for not being able to get this right. Okay, apparently I don't know how to get an image on here... any help on that too?

I am using Filemaker Pro 10 to track registration for a "Monday school" that offers classes to homeschooled kids. We run for 5 hours, and kids take 5 classes (one per hour). I'm having trouble figuring out how to create a way to get FM to create roster lists. I am a novice at database relationships--I last used FM about 20 years ago when relationships weren't part of the picture, and so this is all new to me. So here's where I'm at: I have a table called "studentinfo" where I have student names and IDs, ages, addresses, etc. This also has a "schedule" area where I put down students' classes by hour (these fields are called "Hour 1", "Hour 2", and so on). I have a second table called "classinfo" where I put down class ID (this is not a serialized number--I wanted to determine the ID for each class), class name, teacher name, time, and location of the class. I have a third table called "rosterinfo" that is related to "classinfo" by Class ID (many to many), and to "studentinfo" by Class ID to Hour 1 AND Hour 2 AND Hour 3 AND Hour 4 AND Hour 5. (all many to many). So here's my version of the diagram: Table: Studentinfo Table: Rosterinfo Table: Classinfo Hour 1 assignment > --------- Hour 2 assignment > --------- Hour 3 assignment > --------- < Class ID > --------- < Class ID Hour 4 assignment > --------- Hour 5 assignment > --------- My layout for "rosterinfo" has the class ID and class name up top, and then a portal below that, which looks up student info such as names, ages, and parent contact info. I'm just trying to get a record for every class, and a list of all the students that are taking each class. But nothing is coming up in my portals, so I'm assuming my relationships are all wrong. I don't know how to tell Filemaker to do what I want it to do. If you can help, that'd be great. Thanks in advance for suggestions.

The preferences are irrelevant, actually. I don't need Filemaker to deal with the preferences. I'll re-explain my problem, and hopefully it'll be clearer this time. I have a table called "studentinfo" where I have student names and IDs, ages, addresses, etc. This also has a "schedule" area where I put down students' schedules--each student takes 5 classes, one per hour. I have a second table called "classinfo" where I put down class ID and name, name of teacher, time, and location of the class. I have a fourth table called "rosterinfo" that is related to "classinfo" by Class ID (many to many), and to "studentinfo" by Class ID to Hour 1 assignment AND Hour 2 assignment AND Hour 3 assignment AND Hour 4 assignment AND Hour 5 assignment. (all many to many). So here's my version of the diagram: Table: Studentinfo Table: Rosterinfo Table: Classinfo Hour 1 assignment > --------- Hour 2 assignment > --------- Hour 3 assignment > --------- < Class ID > --------- < Class ID Hour 4 assignment > --------- Hour 5 assignment > --------- My layout for "rosterinfo" has the class ID and class name up top, and then a portal below that, which looks up student info such as names, ages, and parent contact info. I'm just trying to get a record for every class, and a list of all the students that are taking each class. But nothing is coming up in my portals, so I'm assuming my relationships are all wrong. I don't know how to tell Filemaker to do what I want it to do. Again, if you can help, that'd be great. BTW, these are all many to many relationships because I wanted to determine the Class ID rather than have it be serialized. I don't know if that makes a huge difference.

There are five hours of classes (like first period, second period, etc. in high school), and about 6 classes per hour. So I need to be able to generate a schedule of classes for each student (that's easy), and then a roster for each class, for teachers to take attendance with.

I am using "Filemaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual" to learn how to relate various tables in databases. I'm developing a database to track students and classes for a community learning program (non-profit org.) Right now, I have a table with student info, including a student ID, a table with the list of classes offered this semester, with a class ID, and a table that lists first, second and third preferences for each student for each hour, as well as final placements in classes (by a value list that is created by the class list table). Hope that makes sense so far. So my question has to do with HOW to relate all these tables. In the book, they discourage having "many to many" relationships, but I'm having a hard time conceptually getting past this: each students takes many classes, and each class has many students in it. I'm not sure how to connect these tables. What I'm looking for is to be able to enter all the students' class preferences for each hour, then generate a count of how many students have selected each class as a first preference, so that I can see where we'd be overenrolled if we give everyone their first choice. Then, when I place the students in their classes, I want to be able to generate a list of all the students in each class, to give to the teachers as a attendance sheet. If you can help me conceptually understand how these tables should all relate, that would be very helpful. Thanks! ~Stacy

Educated guesses. That's all I got at this point. I really don't know the program that well. The last time I worked on Filemaker Pro was about 15 years ago... version 3, I think. As is the case now, I didn't have a manual or anything, and just went on basic trial-and-error. I went to Filemaker Pro rather than a spreadsheet program like Excel for many reasons; the registration & class lists is only one application of the program to our general record-keeping efforts at the school and basic spreadsheets are not going to cut it. I know my computing logic is very basic, but it just seems to me that there should be a solution to what I want to do that wouldn't require tons of advanced expertise. It seems like there should be an easy way to create class counts based on the values on student enrollment records. I appreciate your help very much.

I just did... thanks for even that help. I was thinking of different layouts as different tables. Not so. So now, I have one table called "studentinfo" and one called "classinfo". I have made the two related. In the "classinfo" table I have a text field for "class name" and I have tried to create fields for "class count" to start out with, but the calculation fields I'm trying are not working; in other words, I'm still having a problem getting a count and name list for each class. I'm just not sure how to program the table to look up the total number of records from "studentinfo" that have selected the "class name" of the record I'm on in "classinfo". For example, if I enter the name "Emergent Lit & Math" in my first record of the "classinfo" table, I want it to look at all the records on the "studentinfo" table and tell me how many of the students are enrolled for this class. I also want it to tell me their names (that would be on a second layout in "classinfo", in a table format with columns corresponding to each class name... I don't know how to get it to do that either). So now that I'm this far, if you have any ideas, please let me know. Thanks!

I'm sorry to say this, but I can't follow your answer. Here's some extra info, though, that may help you and others guide me in a way that I can "get": 1) I have the "hour 1 preference" (and so on) fields set up as value lists for ease of data entry when students turn in sign-ups for classes. I can just click on the buttons corresponding to the classes they want, and go on. I suppose I could set up a separate field for each class, but I'd ONLY want a check box in that case (checked would equal 1, unchecked 0). That way it would be easy to create a summary field that totals up the number of records that are checked for each class. Is it possible to have a field that only consists of a checkbox, and if so, how do I set that up? 2) My second layout is actually part of a second, related table. In that table & layout, records are created for each CLASS, not each STUDENT like the first layout/table. I want my info organized by class for this one. 2) I have succeeded in a kind of halfway step to doing what I really want. In my first table, I created a calculation field called "Emerging Lit Math Count", for one of the classes offered in hour 1: If (Hour 1 preferences = "Emerging Lit & Math"; 1; 0). Then I created a summary field that was the total of "Emerging Lit Math Count". So through this method I can get a count of enrollees on a specified class. However, when I tried to apply and broaden this calculation to my second table/layout, it didn't work like I wanted it to. In this table, I have a "Class Name" field (text), and I tried to have the calculation field "Class Count" automatically search for the right entry in the other table rather than me having to separately create a "count" and "summary" field for each class like I did above. So here's the calculation I tried: If ( Class Name = studentinfo::Hour 1 preferences or studentinfo::Hour 2 preferences or studentinfo::Hour 3 preferences or studentinfo::Hour 4 preferences or studentinfo::Hour 5 preferences, 1; 0). Then I created a "Class Total" summary field which was just the total of "Class Count". So the idea was Now I just get a 0 all the time. How can I get an accurate count? This seems like it should be so easy... look up how many records have this value and give me that total. Again, thanks for the help. ~Stacy

First, the background. I'm the registrar for a "Monday School" for homeschooled children. Our organization offers about 6 classes every hour for 5 hours. I have 5 value lists, one for each hour, that lists the classes offered that hour. On my first layout, I have general student information (first, last, address, phone, emergency contact) AND the classes they've signed up for (I just set up radio button lists in fields called "Hour 1 signup", "Hour 2 signup", and so on, each of which contain the respective value list, so I can click on the classes they want). NOW: In my second layout, I have a field called "Class Name Hour 1" and a second called "Class Count Hour 1", which is supposed to be a calculation field that matches the contents of "Class Name Hour 1" with the "Hour 1 signup" field from the previous layout, and gives me a total count of how many students are signed up for that one. That is, I want to have a number automatically generated, reflecting for how many records that class is selected in the "Hour 1 signup" field on layout 1. I have tried several calculations, but none of them have worked. So I need your help: How do I do this? ALSO: In my third layout, I simply want a table that has a column for each of the class names and then returns a list of student first & last names who are signed up for each one of those classes. How do I do this? Thanks in advance!

Thanks. I'll give it a go here, try to allow you some insight into what I'm trying to do. I'm going to tackle my first question only here, since that's step one for me. I have a layout with fields for student information up top and down below their class preferences. There are five fields in this last section: one for each hour. These are entitled "hour 1 preference" "hour 2 preference", and so on. Each of these fields has a radio button list of the classes being offered at each hour (the lists are 4-6 items long) and I simply take the preferences the parents email me and click the radio button that corresponds to their course preference for each hour. Now, I want to create a different layout that will generate columns of all the classes and a list under each class of student's names who have each class selected. I'm figuring I'll have to create a field for each class (for example, "Emergent Lit Math" "Spanish 1", "Cooking" and so on) but don't know how to program it to list the student names who have those particular classes selected. That is what I need help with. I don't need a count; I need a list of names. Hopefully that's clear enough to allow you to answer my question...if not, let me know and I'll try to be more descriptive :-). Thanks in advance!

I'm creating a database for registration purposes at a school. Students of board members are automatically placed into their first choice classes, then teacher's children are given priority, then others. If enrollment for a class goes beyond its max limit, I want Filemaker Pro to randomly select from students whose "first choice" field contains each class name. I currently have "first choice, hour 1", "first choice, hour 2", etc. on one layout. So here are my questions: 1) I will be creating a layout with fields for each class (ex: "hula") and want lists to be automatically generated with the names of kids whose first choice is in each of those classes. How is this done? 2) Can Filemaker Pro be programmed to tell when a class is overenrolled and randomly select the kids who get to take the class, placing the others in their "second choice" for that hour (that's another field I have already)? As you can see, I'm in way over my head here. I've worked with Filemaker before (years ago), and I'm a fast learner, but I need to get my hands on a good manual. In the meantime, I hope you can help. Thanks, Stacy