dhartin

Found this thread extreemly helpfull for something I'm working on as well - so thanks for the posts guys.. I have a question though about possibly extending the functionality (and helping me out : )?? How would you go about adding a second portal that showed all other records - apart from those returned in the first date range search.. eg - in the above, rather than searching - you could show all records from the last month in the first portal, and then all other records in the second portal possible :?

ahh.. ok - I see I think I relaised that would be what it was when I posted - but thank you for the confirmation. It's a bit of a shame, and I think it limits the product somewhat. I guess I can revist my database design and combine the data in the one related table - then filter out what's viewied somehow?? on the entry forms so I can display them both in the report Cheers

Appoligies for the complete NOOB question but I am realy struggling with reports at the moment. Basicaly - I have a Matters table, Clients table and Proprties table. I am trying to create a report (layout?) on a matter(showing the matter details), then list all of the associated clients to the matter (many-many relationship) and then all of the associated properties to the matter (seperate many-many relationship) On the data entry layout I use two portals to display these, but for a report I'm stuck and cannot understand the way the summary parts work??? (eg I dont want to sum anything - just display multiple clients per matter and multiple properties per matter) all comments most appreciated : : thanks Damian

Thought I might try revisiting this and see if anyone else had any comments. I've ended up back at the start (with storing the text from the lookup directly in the table) I figured I could write a script to allow changes to the lookup values - then bulk update all the records that already have if applied - rather than reduce the functionality for the end user?? Thoughts appreciated :)

wow, excellent responses !! Thank you very much I havent started playing with custom functions yet, so thanks for the introduction - I think I will enjoy getting my head arround those. And comment's script seems like a very neat solution indead. Had it implimented and working perfectly in all of 2 minutes Thanks once again !

wondering if someone know a way to do this. I have a many to many relationship between a matters and clients table. I am displaying the clients for a matter via a portal on the matters table and am using merge fields to display the data "nicer" (eg Surname,Firstname rather than two fields that will likely leave alot of white space) So in order to add clients I'm using a lookup layout for the user to select the one they want. Is there a way I can query the contents of the junction table before adding a client to make sure their not allready associated with the matter. I figgured I could add a loop in a script and check each row of the junction table for a match but dont think that's overly efficient. Is there any way for me to something like: "SELECT FROM tblMattes_Cliets WHERE ClientID=1 AND MatterID =8" and if it returns a value then dont add it ?? While I'm at it - I'm figguring that there's not a "free form" code type window for FM? Is it all controled via the built in scripts? (Am comming from MSAccess/VB type background) Any comments appreciated Thanks anyways.. a merge field

Yep, works well thanks I see what you mean about the ID value showing when you select the field, which is not that big a problem (especialy when you change the font color) but it means you lose the "auto-complete" functionality and cant see the value when the field is selected : In MSAccess you can have two column combo boxes which let you have the first field(ID) the bound/related field but only display the second.. That way it's completly seemless to the user. Still interested to hear what everyone else thinks about this - I agree that the relational model is best (eg I dont want to just use a lookup that stickes the text value in the main matter table) but I want the use to be able to autotype in the value or select it from a drop down and retain the ability to change the spelling/text of the related data... The current solution is very neat though thank-you, didn't actualy think of doing that myself :

Thanks for the post - I will have a play and see what it looks like. What do you (others) normaly do in this circumstance? show both the ID field and the text value? Or just leave the text value in a field in the table (and worry about updating the values in exisiting records when that happens?)

Hoping someone can help me what should be a simple thing? though I cant find any threads that help me out with this specificaly Am new to FM though am accustomed with relational database design To keep it simple - I have two tables: 1) Matters 2) Matter Types The matters table has various fields relating to the matter. What I want to be able to do is have a drop down list on the matter layout so I can pick a matter type from the matter types table. Now I know how to do this through creating the relationship between the two tables (on MatterTypeID) but I cant get arround the drop down list displaying the MatterTypeID once selected. I want the drop down list to show the types then when I select one - still display that MatterType - WHILST mainting the relationship (eg. if I change the spelling of a matter type I want it to be reflected in all the matters using that type) All the examples I've seen seem to add the MatterType (or whatever the example field is) to the Matters table. So if the type changes - the applied matter type is still there with the old spelling? In Access and VB this is a simple thing so am hoping that FM provides the same (or similar) functionality??? ANY comments would be appreciated Thanks Damian