Hi all,

I have an issue I need help with designing.

I have a database with three fields:

PortID - the actual port id of the actual record

PortB - the port this actual port is connected to

Now what I want to do is list all those circuit portions preferably in a portal, one by one depending on which circuit I pick.

Example:

PortID PortB

1 2

2 3

3 4

4 5

5 6

6 -

So say I click on the circuit 3-4, filemaker will know that this is actually part of a "bigger picture" and list all those circuit portions mentioned above.

Problem is, I don't know how to set up the relationship to make this kind of recursive. Would I need a script for this?

Another option would be inserting a third field, call it "overall circuit id", and assign all portions that one id. I'd like to avoid this approach if at all possible. The design of that is not very elegant or userfriendly.

Thanks in advance for answering this tough one!

Oh, the foot bone's connected to the...

You're probably going to have to add that third field, because computers are stupid. In general, the computer doesn't know two things are related unless you tell it so. In Filemaker, this is achieved by creating relationships or, possibly in your case, adding that third field.

Unless you can create a script that looks for the "next" record through a series of Finds which "extend" the found set and continue until you reach the "end of the line". It might be too complicated, however, depending on how many different ways the records can be linked.