crebma

Unfortunately, I do not have Server. Just 8 advanced. We will need Server, soon, though. Right now there are two computers accessing the served databases, thus, no need. But soon, we will have 8-10. So we will need it!!

Alright, so it's down to this: tabs, or record-creation. I suppose tabs could work, I guess there's no real reason to see everything happening at once, I just thought it might be nice. It seems like record-creation might get a little excessive, and if something changes somewhere, or someone cancels, or anything, that might cause problems. I agree that nothing will be as beautiful as iCal, although iCal cannot grab my data dynamically either, thus giving me the same issues I have with option number two. Thanks very much for everyone's input. I really appreciate it! Amber

I knew I shouldn't have quit drinking!!! I will look into that last FileMaker book you recommended. It will be a bit though, as I am a poor person (living in mid-michigan you don't get paid much to run it departments). I suppose it would work fine to combine all the files. It would just take a bit, but it would also make backup a bit easier.

My company is a brewpub, and so all these different files are things I've come up with to help us manage the information. For example, 'banquets' holds the information for all the banquets people will have with us. 'Schedule' is the employee schedule for all the different departments (I can't believe it crashes your application!! I made it in FMP8A!! EEK!!). I have a bunch of others, as well: entertainment, for a schedule of people who will be playing at the brewery, recipes, for... recipes, purchase orders, etc, etc, etc. I suppose the reason I have them all in seperate files is because it seems like it would easier to fix when something goes horribly wrong. Likewise, if someone manages to crash one file, they don't all crash. Obviously I was wrong with this assumption, and will get to work putting them all into one huge database. I do, however, think it would be worthwhile to create a Banquet record and have a calendar record be created because of that, instead of the other way round. Although I suppose that if I were in the calendar and made a new record with the tag of banquet, I could then go to the banquet layout and fill details from there. Which is exactly what you said. hmmm.... I have much to think about on this. I ought to add that before this job, my experience with database work was to the extent of... arrays in c++. I know that doesn't count, but I think you see what I mean. I thought I was getting it down pretty good, but apparently I've missed a huge point!!!

Do you mean keep them all in the same database? I have been thinking about compiling all my databases into one database with a zillion tables and layouts, but that seems like too much data to store in one place. Although I suppose I could store it elsewhere and have it pull from there. But with fifteen databases up right now that are being used by my company, that will take some time. I understand the idea of having it create a record in the events table whenever one is created in one of the databases (banquets, schedules, entertainment), and that sounds like the best (only?) way to go with this. But if it seems like it's a good idea to compile all the databases into one huge solution, then I will gladly start with that. Ultimately, though, that's a different question, since coconut's idea will work whether they are all in one database or in separate databases. Maybe I'm over-thinking. I feel stoopid. Thanks for your responses, they are extremely helpful! The offer for brownies still stands! Amber

Maybe I'm misunderstanding... Should I do a daily import from all three files into the one events table in CC? Or just do one and then set it up so that whenever I create a new record in one of the other databases it will add a record to the events table? That sounds feasible. Tricky, but not too tricky. I apologize about the password protection. I always forget about that. The username is "admin" and the password is "brewth", if you're interested. I will give the second option a shot. Thanks, guys!! I will add: I usually offer to send brownies, if you'd like. :o

I was thinking about the things you mentioned, but they are, as you said, bulky and un-elegant. I figured there probably was no way to do what I want to do nicely, but I have only been developing for a little less than a year, so I thought I'd double check. But I am considering just giving in and putting the actual planner inside the databases I would like it to display. But I thought it would be nice to be able to view them all in one place. Perhaps I can figure out an applescript and just do it all in iCal. Thanks, though!!

Here is a relationship graph and a copy of all three files involved. I just want to know if it's even possible, or if there's a perhaps trick, which is why I offered no money. Thoughts? planner.zip

I can never tell what it means when nobody replies. Either it's so easy no one is going to bother, or there's no possible way. I'll continue searching. :o

Perhaps if you uploaded the file, it would be easier to help/see what you're talking about?

Here's the issue. I have a planner database. I want it to pull info from the schedule database, banquet database, and entertainment database and display it on all on the calendar in the planner, very much like iCal. It already shows information from the banquet database, but that's all. I am using cc calendar's free edition and molding it to my needs. Is there a way I can get it to pull dates and information from all three databases and display it on one calendar? If you haven't seen it, the way it displays events is through portals. All I really did was replace the events tables inside the cc calendar with TOs from the Banquet Database. Sorry for being so longwinded. Any thoughts?

nevermind, figured it out. thanks!

All you have to do is set the other fields as autoenter, and have that first field be what is automatically entered. also, check 'do not replace existing value.' then you're set! (sidenote: i have no idea if fm 5.5 has autoenter capability, but if it does, that's what you do!)

PS: I just noticed it asks for a password. Just put admin as the user, and leave the password field blank. Thanks!!

I put a sort of tester up on the employee layout of this file, to show what files are related from "assignedmonam" to employees. the relationship id based on name, date, shift, and dept. the dept is the thing giving me trouble. the relationship says that assignmonam::dept = employees::gDate. gdate it a calculation that just steals the gdate value from week::gDate, which is manually set. i put the two fields right next to the portal as demonstration. any thoughts?!?!?! schedule.fp7.zip