Lookup VS. Portal

[RWarrick66]

Newbie is right! About 3 days new. Starting with an existing FM database that the users have been keying customer data in for about 6 months (1000+ records). Now we want to link to the corporate AS400 server for this header data. No problem ... the import through ODBC is complete. NOW ... how do I associate the new fields from the ODBC to the existing fields (of the same name and data type) without destroying any existing entries. PLUS I want to key in the FIRST field of this link and let the rest populate based on that FIRST field. WOW! I'll take this in small bites.

[CobaltSky]

Hello RWarrick66,

To provide a basic for matching the existing customer data with the ODBC extract data, you will need to set up a relationship which matches two unique corresponding fields in both sets of data.

For example, a customerID field, if you have one would be ideal. If you don't have a uniqueID field in both sets of data (one in which the value in corrseponding data sets can be expected to match), you may have to create on by creating a calculation in each set that concatenates other existing values (eg name and phone number) to provide a value that is unique.

Once you have established unique matching values in fields in both data sets, you should defein a relationship (using the Define Relashionships... command on the File menu) which matches the two respective fields in the files holding the two sets of data.

Once the relationship is in place, you will be able to put fields from the ODBC export file on the layou; in your original filem (source them via the relationship) to compare the data, and when ready, you will be able to create new fields in your customer file and define them to auto-enter data via a 'lookup' to copy matching values from the ODBC file.

[RWarrick66]

I managed to create the ID field in both of the files, which was the combination of two fields required to make it unique. When I input a number (in the format I have defined) the remainder of the fields come in as well. This works fine as long as the fields are pointing to that relationship. Unfortunately, they were originally fields of their own in this database file where the data was keyed in by hand. How do I define these fields to retain the original 1000+ records and still accept the new data source?

This is in the header so all layouts with the same header have the same info at the top.