auto reducing value list

[rivet]

can any one think of a way to create a value list that reduce in size as each item is used.

Say the record is a project and there is a line item portal listing the employees are who are involved in that project, I would like the value list of employees to only show the name that I have not used.

[Garry Claridge]

Maybe use a Calculation field, for the valuelist, which either returns the Name or Blank.

All the best.

Garry

[LiveOak]

In your project file, you can create a text field and enter all the employee names separated by carriage returns. If you setup your value list using a relationship based upon project number, you will see values for only the selected project. As you use each employee name, it can be removed from the field by a script.

1) A list consisting of a single field with employee names separated by carriage returns. This field has different values for each project.

2) A value list defined as a field from another (or the same) file using a relationship.

-bd

[CobaltSky]

There is a method that I suggest you consider, which has the advantage that as well as automatically removing names from the value list if they are selected, it will also automatically add them back on if they are subsequently overwritten (eg if one staff member is replaced by another).

Essentially the technique runs a comparison between a value list of previously selected names and a value list of available names, and removes each of the values on the former from the latter, to produce the list you see when you click into the pop-up list field.

The technique requires three relationships plus three value lists (one for all available names, one for names already chosen for the current project, and the 'payload' one listing the names not yet chosen). The procedure and the formulae are a little long and complex to describe here, but you'd be welcome to download a sample file which is available free from my web site, and which provides a working model of the technique.

The demo file is set up to support project teams of up to sixty members (ie the first sixty names added to a project will automatically be omitted from the pop-up list) however it could be extended if desired. In the demo, the 'master list' of employees is drawn from a field in a related file (in this example, an 'employees' file), however this is not crucial to its functioning. You should be able to readily adapt the technique to your purposes.

If you are interested, you can download the demo file from:

http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/demos/DynamicValues.zip

The file is not password-protected, so you will be able to prise it open and 'see inside'.