does a portal placed on a layout have to be related to anything to show data?

[fluffy]

Can i set a portal to show a set of records / data that is not actually related to the page it is set on?

so it might be I want a list of records shown in a portal filtered to show what I want on a layout that shows data from other related tables etc....

[comment]

I don't really understand your question.

A portal shows data either from a related table or (in case of a list-detail layout) from the current table. Only related records are shown (though not all related records may be shown if the portal is filtered).

Perhaps you should explain in more detail what you're actually after. 

 

[fluffy]

thankyou for your reply.
I am toying with an idea and I want to have a layout that brings different unrelated datasets together into one layout / screen.
however, as I understand it the layout needs to be related to a table so this means each dataset / portal will also need to have relationships to the layout etc..
 

[comment]

35 minutes ago, fluffy said:

I want to have a layout that brings different unrelated datasets together into one layout / screen.

That's not really telling me much. In any case, a portal cannot show data from an unrelated table. Still, there are other options:

• You can define a relationship to the table storing the dataset;
• You can collect the dataset into a variable and view it in a portal to a "virtual list" table or ...
• ... in a web viewer, or ...
• ... in a text field;
• You can use a card/floating window showing a layout of the unrelated table.

That's just what immediately pops into my head. There may be more alternatives, but we would need to know what is the actual purpose of this exercise. Perhaps this is a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place and the real cause of it is poor data structure (as is very often the case when you find it's difficult to build the layout you need).

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by comment

[fluffy]

Hi thankyou.  I think I will explore the card window option first as it may be all i need.
I can attach it to a button to open as and when i need it.
And i should be able to use a script to open multiple card windows, positioned on the screen.

Thankyou

Edited December 7, 2023 by fluffy

[bcooney]

You are limited to one card window at a time. Sounds like you’re building a dashboard. However, a paragraph describing your use case will help us suggest an appropriate approach. 

[rwoods]

Hello, I just wanted to add here, that if you are trying to create a dashboard as @bcooney suggests, then you can use Cartesian Relationships, that is a relationship that always matches two table occurrences on the graph, regardless of the values of the fields that are chosen for the relationship in 'Manage Database. You pick the 'X' symbol when defining the relationship, rather than '=' or any of the other comparative operators.

From the help file

x	All records in the left table are matched to all records in the right table, regardless of the values in the match fields (sometimes called a Cartesian product relationship)

This way, your portals will show ALL records from the related table, and you can use portal filtering to reduce the number of records shown.

Depending on what you are trying to show in the portal, you may run into performance issues so you may want to check that any displayed data in the portal is stored (i.e. not unstored calculations). Also, remember that if you define any summary calculations in the main table to show 'totals' or something from the related table, it will summarise all the records, not just the records that are displayed by your portal filter. This can be an issue with dashboard design.

Hope this helps, I often feel that @comment and @bcooney (and others) maybe know more than me!

[comment]

18 minutes ago, rwoods said:

your portals will show ALL records from the related table, and you can use portal filtering to reduce the number of records shown.

Just keep in mind that portal filtering is the equivalent of an unstored calculation - so your subsequent warning applies equally well here.