? second search list vary with the choice in first list?

[calicoskies]

I've been working on the search pages of my web site. There are currently 2 drop downlists, one is named manufacturers and the second lists subcategories of products that the specific manufacturer makes. That subcategory should be specific to the manufacturer. Right now, in my database, it's not specific to a manufacturer. I need it to be though.

I did try using a case function calculation like this:

Prod_Type_Case = Case(Manufacturers = "Hon", Hon, Manufacturers = "Martin", Martin, Manufacturers = "Creative",Creative, Manufacturers = "LaZBoy", LaZboy, Manufacturers = "Hooker", Hooker)

What I had hoped this would do is have it look at whether the choice of say "Creative" had been made, then it would look for the field named Creative which is a text field with a value list listing all the categories specific to Creative. I can't figure out how to make it truly work though.

Someone suggested I need a second database and to make it relational (with a 3rd database inbetween) but that seems like overkill for something like this. Not sure though. I'm a database newbie and I might be all wrong. Isn't there a way to do this in one database?

Help is really appreciated, I've been stuck on this issue for days and have reached burnout.

thanks,

Lynn

[Vaughan]

The relational value list feature of FMP 5 does not work over the web. There may be a way of doing it, but it would involve selecting from the first list, then submitting the page so that Web Companion can generate the second list. Without the "submit" step Web Companion has no way of knowing what the first selection is.

[Jeff Spall]

Hi,

the first thing I found out about FMP5 was that the conditional value lists didn't work over the web

if you have static lists - that is ones not generated from a field - then you could use javascript to select the second list.

try this: http://www.william-reed.net/country_chooser.htm

but in this example the lists are written into the page code, though it might be possible to pass values from FileMaker and embed them.

regards, Jeff