How to generate different Portal line numbers for different parent record

[Guy_Smith]

This should be easy, but my brain just won't cooperate!

I'm moving a bunch of stuff and want to inventory what is in each moving container.  I have a very simple parent-child relationship with the parent record having the container number and category of parts/equipment/supplies and the child records describe each piece of equipment in the container.  I have a portal with the child records showing for each container, but want to put anatto-entered item number for each piece that has the container number followed by a dash and then followed by a serialized number for each item in that particular container.  For example, I would have container 1 labeled "Glassware" and Container 2 labeled "Chemicals".  In Container 1's portal I'd like to see:

Item    Description          Qty

1-1      Beakers, 500ml    4

1-2      Beakers, 250 ml   2

and in Container 2's portal I'd like to see:

Item    Description          Qty

2-1      Potassium           4 g

2-2      Sodium                26 g

I'd like to auto-fill the item numbers, but can't figure out how to reset the serialization for each parent record.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks and keep yourselves safe!

 

[comment]

What would be the purpose of such numbering? If it's only for displaying in a portal on a layout of the Containers table, it seems rather redundant. But if you wanted, you could simply merge the parent's container number field with the record number symbol.

Note that this would be dynamic numbering: iit would automatically adjust after adding or deleting a record or if the portal records were resorted. And it would not be applied to any other layout (e.g. a list view of the Items table, showing items of more than one container).

 

[Guy_Smith]

The purpose is twofold:

1.  People packing will be assigned to fill a particular container.  They'll grab an item and place it into a marked spot (i.e. 1-7 or 2-73) in the container.

2.  When unpacking by likely different people, this will allow people to quickly locate an item (I need a 500 ml beaker - it should be in box 1, spot 1).  Also, if they see a random item laying around, they can return it to the proper container.

Unfortunately, dynamic numbering won't work.  It just seemed like it would be easier to know that a certain piece came from a certain place instead of wondering where the heck item #89221goes.  It's not a big problem filling in the item numbers manually, but I wanted to automate it as much as possible.

Thanks.

[comment]

I am afraid you've lost me at this point. If it's possible to assign an item to a spot automatically, then why can't be dynamic?

Of course, you can always number (or renumber) items by script (with the usual caveat regarding record locking).

 

[Guy_Smith]

Thanks, comment:  I worked up a script that does the renumbering and it seems to work well.