Here is another relationship question on a dynamic variation.

Main file: Jobs.fp5

Related file: Contacts.fp5

Existing relationship: User ID=:User ID

Currently this works as a new record is created in Jobs.fp5, I can put a User ID number in a field, and the other fields for address, phone number, fax number, ect. are then automatically populated from Contacts.fp5.

Pretty straight forward. Now I want to add a portal. I have used portals a lot, but I want this one to be a bit different, and I dont quite know how.

Here is how I want the portal to work. Select a job in Jobs.fp5. Go to the portal, Select a User ID and have that EXISTING contact from the Contacts.fp5 show up in the portal. The user can add as many contacts that are appropriate for the selected job. And of course the user can go to another job records, and add from the contact database different contacts that are appropriate for that job.

I dont quite know how to work this type of relationship in conjunction with the portal. I am hoping that this makes sense and that someone can give me an idea.

LR

I think what your are tring to do requires a many to many (if i understand right)

There is 2 ways to do this.

1. Go to http://www.dwdataconcepts.com/dwdctips.htm and download the MANY TO MANY sample. and follow it from there. That does it with out needing a 3rd database.

2. Make a 3rd database that hold the JobID, and the contactID. Make a new record in that database for each contact you want to attach to a job. Then have a portal to it in the jobs. Run a search of this forums for other discussions on this topic (its a big one to explain).

HTH

This is relatively straightforward, and you should not require a third file. All that is required is that the key field for your relationship to the contacts file is a text field, and that the contacts (when there are more than one for a given job record) are sstored on separate lines in that field (ie separated by carriage returns).

So what you are looking for is a way to select contacts from a value list and have them automatically added to the key field (which will in turn result in the corresponding details appearing in the portal).

For a couple of alternative techniques for automatically adding items from a list to a field, you might like to have a look at the two demos in the zipped folder I am attaching to this post.

For a rather more sophisticated approach, where contacts whose names have already been selected are removed from the value list for a given record, you may wish to have a look at the Dynamic Value Lists Example, which is downloadable from my web site at:

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

But be warned, the calculations/scripts involved in this latter example are a mite tricky.

autolists.zip