Printing line items with multiple tables.

[RajaHashir]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this. But I have a issue. 

Basically, I have a layout which shows an Estimate. Each Estimate layout has a related table for (main estimate, descriptive, other). Each of those related tables has their own fields with detail and pricing. I have those as portals on the Estimates main page.

My client needs to print out an invoice that shows all the estimates from the related tables in a line item type of view. 

I was thinking to create a table with all global fields. The script will loop through each related table and transfer that to the new global table by adding new records. Then it will loop through next related table and trasnfer those. This way all table data will be in one list. Then I will print from the new global table with list view. Afterwards, I'm assuming I will need to delete the records in the global table?

Is that the correct way? Will creating and deleting new records in a global table be an issue with other users?

I thought of making just one table initially to hold all estimate data, but that will not work.

Hope this is easy to understand.

[Steve Martino]

You should investigate virtual list.  This is one way to gather all the line items from different tables. This should get you started.

http://mightydata.com/?s=Virtual+list

http://www.seedcode.com/virtual-list/

https://filemakerhacks.com/tag/virtual-list/

http://www.modularfilemaker.org/module/hyperlist/

 

[RajaHashir]

Thanks for the reply. That looks like a good way. It is kind of confusing to understand though. Do you know of anyone explaining that through a video maybe?

[Steve Martino]

Did you search on YouTube?  I see at least 4

[RajaHashir]

I did search youtube. I found some videos about virtual lists, but it was not what I was in need of.

I again looked over the links you provided. I am starting to understand  how it stores the values. I did not see about how to loop through multiple records. Would the following be correct?

LOOP through estimate table to get value of first record in GLOBAL field (with parsing as link instructed)
GOTO report layout and set fields with the variable data
GOTO previous layout and get value from second record in GLOBAL field.
GOTO report layout and set second record with the variable data.
Do this until done.

I did not see, or maybe I missed how to cycle through records from the links. Any help is greatly appreciated!