Related field, within a second related portal.

[GrantSymon]

Hi,

I've tried searching threads for this, but really, I have no idea how to phrase the search. *

I have 2 files, one with images and the other representing their sales. The sales file draws a related image into the Sales file via a normal relationship (uniqueID) and that's fine. However, I also want to view the related images via a *self relationship* in the Sales file (for a sales report).

Is there any way to view a field's content which is related from another file via a relationship, via a self relationship in the child file?

Maybe I should be bringing the image into the sales file via a lookup...but it seems a bit cumbersome to have to have the image data twice.

If it makes any difference....I'm running FMP 6.0.2 (since yesterday) on a Mac.

Thanks,

Grant

[falkaholic]

I'm not sure what your tring to do but you can't related to another relation. That doesn't make sense. What are you tring to do in the end?

A self relation is best used for somthing like catagories. For example, you could have every pic have a catagory and then make a self relation based on the catagory. That relation would yield a list of all other pics in the same catagory.

By the way, you can do a phrase search, by seledting "Entire Phrase" (its the default) on the search page.

[GrantSymon]

Thanks for the reply.

okay....try again:

I have file A which has images in it.

File B reports sales of those images.

I use File B to generate reports on sales of the images in File A

I bring the actual images into file B via a relationship using a unique ID, so I'm not storing them twice. This lets me see visually which image a given sale relates to.

That's all fine. However...

I have now found a need for a self relationship in File B... I have some sales which are as yet unpaid and so they are flagged at creation. These files are grouped by month.

I can view all of these simply by using a self relation via a portal in which I select the month. It's a quick and easy way of viewing them and it lets me edit them collectively (thanks to the portal).

It all works fine...except...because the image itself is brought into File B via a relationship with an outside file...I can't include the images in the self relation portal.

So....the question is

Are there any tricks for getting around this, or do I simply have to pull the images into file B via a lookup?

Thanks

Grant

[LiveOak]

What you need is to create a calculated field in File B defined as:

Image (calculation, container, unstored) = RelToFileA::Image

This "repeats" the related image from File A so that it is now available to other relationships as if it were a field in File B.

-bd

[GrantSymon]

>What you need is to create a calculated field in File B defined as:

That is exactly what I was hoping for! Great!

Thanks very much,

Grant