synchronizing portals?

[csbalogh]

Hi everyone,

I have three files: (1) Book, (2) CDROM, (3) Files.

A (record of) Book can be found on many CDROM (records), and can correspond to several Files (records). So Book A can stay on CDROM A and CDROM B, and Book A consists of File AA and AB on CDROM A, and File BA, BB, and BC on CDROM B.

I want to place CDROM and Files as two synchronized portals on the Book's layout#1. When I add a new record to Book, from the CDROM portal I have to be able to select CDROM A (value list based on the [title] field in the CDROM file), and have to be able to add (!) File AA, and AB to the second File portal. Afterwards, for the same Book record, I want to select CDROM B (which also contains the same Book record) and have to add the three new filenames, File BA, File BB, File BC in the second File portal.

My question is how can I synchronize the two portals (CDROM and Files) so that when I add (or read) a record to (on) the CDROM portal, the File portal only displays the related records? By navigating (?) through the portal CDROM, the portal Files should change accordingly.

Note that there are only two files I can add records to directly, namely Books and CDROM. The database Files I can access neither directly, nor as a portal on CDROM, only (!) as the portal on the Books layout.

Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

Thanks.

[LiveOak]

I think you have a problem with the way you have organized the solution. I'm not clear on why you need a separate FileMaker File (table) for each CDROM. There are alternative organizations of the data.

Your data is basically just Books and Files. The CDROM is just a storage location for each file (just data, not structure). If a record in your "File" database is just a Book/FileName/CDROM Name. If you wish to view by CDROM name, you can create relationships (and portals) with the Files file (whew!) to show just the contents of a single CDROM.

-bd

[csbalogh]

I do need all three files. The whole thing is to become a catalogus containing books (both printed and e-books). The e-books are to be found on CD-ROMs (which as a separate dbase contains information like CD purchase price, CD publisher etc.). Several e-books, however, use more than one file on the CD-ROM, and a CD-ROM contains more than one book and even more files (since one book can be made up of several files). So my record (on the Book layout) should look like this:

____________

Book Title

------------

(Portal 1 CD-ROM)

______________________

CD ROM Title A

----------------------

CD ROM Title B

----------------------

(Portal 2 File names synchronized with Portal 1)

______________________

FileName AA

----------------------

FileName AB

When I Select CD ROM Title B in Portal 2 should appear

______________________

FileNAme BA

----------------------

FileName BB

----------------------

FileNAme CA etc.

So I want to see on which CD-ROM I can find a particular book, and what are the file names for that particular book, on the selected CD-ROM. The CD-ROM names I select from a value list, the FileNames I add in the portal.

(In a later stage the CD-ROM database has to list in a portal all books that it contains and in a second protal all files. Note once again that they differ in the number of records.)

My basic question is:

How when selecting a record in portal 1 I get only the related records (or no records if I still have to add) in portal B?

Sorry if I've been too messy.

Thanks.

[LiveOak]

I guess I was thrown by the phrase "synchronizing" portals. You really aren't synchronizing anything (making two data sets agree, as in synchonizing you Palm Pilot to the address book on you computer).

What you have is a hierarchy of files:

Books ---> CDROMs ---> Files

This is easy enough to do. You need a relationship between the Book file and CDROM file based upon, say the Book#, a standard field in Books. Also a relationship between Books and Files based upon a global field in Books. A transparent button over a row of Portal 1 copies the CDROM# to the global field and causes Portal 2 to display the files on the selected CDROM.

-bd