Portal for DataEntry/Ingredients of recipes

[HJS]

L&G,

I have read the guidelines for posts in this forum. Therefore I did not enter the Post title that came first in mind: Do I understand portals (aka do I understand Filemaker) and I do not emphasize now on being new in Filemaker issues.

I am trying to achieve something simple at a first step of a big plan: Entering recipes in a Filemaker testversion database. 

The longterm goal should be a database in which I can enter my collected recipes.

Followed by tool for a weekly menu plan for my family and a shopping list coming out of the database after taking care of my fridge's stock => so far so good, but currently this is a plan for the next ten years I realized starting with Filemaker.

I searched different apps and database programs, and Filemaker seems to be my solution as I did not find anything that fits exactly my expectations.

So back to the first problem: how to enter my recipes?

I created a table of recipes with an unique ID_pk (I learned already about pk and fk), Name and How-To-Make-it as well as IDs(fk) from the other tables which are Zutaten (Ingredients) with the name and the amount, Form_Zutaten (how the ingredients are used i.e. chopped, sliced, etc.) and Einheit_Zutaten (unit i.e. cup, liter, etc.). Why I have choosen this structure: because all ingredients must be combinable with different units and how the are used. otherwise I have to enter e.g. avocado sliced, avocado mashed, etc. or make rules like liquids can only be liter or mililiter or cups while flour can only be gramms etc.

So a combination of all three tables should be possible.

What I though might be an easy task is to create a recipe layout than with 

recipe ID

recipe name

and a dynamic portal depending on the number of ingredients constisting of:

Zutat - Form - Menge - Einheit

in english: Name of the ingredient - how is it, which kind/form - how much (qty) - which unit

so I related the tables via pk and fk, created the layout and bam: complete disaster.

after needing a couple of days to make the values appearing in the dropdown (learned about the value list), some fields in the portal do show the all entries of the ingredients, while the kind/form and unit fields do always show the first value of the table?

and although I locked the fields, the first entry is always shown and is getting overwritten by the choice I choose from the dropdown...

and nothing is dynamic, meaning that 7 ingredients will make 7 lines and it always starts with one empty line, etc.

I am not sure if my descriptions do make sense, therefore I am attaching my work, hoping someone could help me with how to use the portal for a convenient data entry.

 

thx in advance!

br

HJS

 

 

2017_09_Essensplan.fmp12

[Steve Martino]

My German is limited to 2 years in high school.  So besides basic conversation, I'm useless.  Haven't seen @eos here in a while, who is fluently bilingual in English/German.

Looking at your database, unfortunately it's wrong...and really wrong.  But all is not lost as you didn't get too far into the process.

First you should research FileMaker Recipes.  There may already be a solution you can either use, or look at to understand data modeling, scripts, relationships, etc.

This type of database may read more like an Invoice database:

INVOICES----<LINEITEMS>-----PRODUCTS

RECIPES----<LINEITEMS>------INGREDIENTS

You will probably need more tables than this, but this will get you started

So your first table is all your INGREDIENTS.  Just list them all, I would ignore quantities, unless you want to enter the quantities you purchase them in when you buy in bulk.  Doing so may help with a shopping list.

LINEITEMS will be your join table.  For starters, it can be a portal on your Recipe Layout.  You will have a primary key from RECIPES linked to a foreign key in LINEITEMS (one to many) relationship, and a primary key in INGREDIENTS linked to a foreign key in LINEITEMS, also a one to many relationship.

Your LINEITEMS table (portal) will have fields for quantites, as well as instructions (Instructions may need to be a separate table, but for simplicity sake just make it a field in LINEITEMS).  It will also have fields that will look up your ingredients, either by LookUp or Calculation.

Here's one of my first DB's I made.   I used it for planning simple parties at home, assembling a guest list and a menu.

 It has some of the elements you can use, just to get a starting idea.  I deleted all the People records

Party Planner.fmp12

 

I also found this old thread:

 

Party Planner.fmp12

Edited September 18, 2017 by Steve Martino
Add file

[Lee Smith]

I just did this search in Google site: fmforums.com Recipe database and got several hits also.

[HJS]

Dear Steve, dear Lee,

thanks for the fast reply - unfortunately I read yours Steve couple of times but I do not have an idea about the way to go. I can read the explanations but they do not transform into an information I could use...but thats all because of a lack in my database-thinking. I already tried to find other databases and have posted in the post you attached already but was told (also Lee) to start a new post...alls other files I found did not fulfill my basic needs as they have been more complicated.

and to me it looks like reading someones database is like reading someones excel. everyone has its own style...but thank you for the planning database, I will try to squeeze out the necessary information...

I am also not sure if I explained correctly what I would like to do? I might attach a drawing of it...

[bruceR]

Lee: I tried a search and got "hits" but actually did not find anything useful.

If somebody has done a search and found relevant examples, then it would be helpful to link directly to those "curated" examples.

Unfortunately - yes, that does mean a bit more work.

[Lee Smith]

Here is one that looks promising.

http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/89496-my-recipe-database-needs-help/?p=411032

I don't use FileMaker for our recipes, we use a inexpensive cook book because, they have some recipes, plus special menus for, diabetes, cholesterol, etc. We also enter family favorites. You can also do proportional for number of people, such as 1, 2 , 3, etc.

 

Edited September 18, 2017 by Lee Smith
added some additional info

[bruceR]

HJS: it may be your desire that this be a simple exercise. That doesn't make it a reality.

Lee: that said; I don't think this is a useful starting point.

[Lee Smith]

22 minutes ago, BruceR said:

it may be your desire that this be a simple exercise. That doesn't make it a reality.

That was the purpose of my rely

32 minutes ago, Lee Smith said:

I don't use FileMaker for our recipes, we use a inexpensive cook book

Lee

 

[bruceR]

Attached is a modified version of your file with a few of the errors corrected.

Steve mentioned some of your errors; including putting foreign keys in the Recipe table, instead of the Recipe_lines table.

Also, you had set up all your relationships to be cartesian relationships ("X" relationships)

That means "put everything everywhere." You don't want to do that.

2017_09_Essensplan_MODBFR.fmp12.zip