"AND" search in portal... can only enter one item?

[brandall]

Quick (hopefully) question:

Using a DB in FM5.5, and trying to perform a find on a portal field. The field links to a KEYWORDS database from a main CONTACTS file, and each record can have as many or as few keywords linked as it likes. When I enter find mode, I can enter a single item into the KW portal-field, and the find executes perfectly (finding all parent records with that keyword). However, I cannot (to my knowledge) enter more than one keyword at one time this way, as the portal does not recognize that it "should" create a new portal row, etc. Thus, I cannot execute "AND" finds on this field.

Is there a way (via any method, ie scripting, etc) to execute an "AND" find on a portal field??

Thanks in advance...

[Ugo DI LUCA]

brandall said:

Is there a way (via any method, ie scripting, etc) to execute an "AND" find on a portal field??

May be, but it would be better to perform an "AND" find on the field in that related file...

[Vaughan]

You need to create multiple find requests, not enter multiple key words into the field (whether it be a related field in a portal, or a local field).

[BobWeaver]

Let me see if I have this straight. Your keyword file contains a single keyword per record, and it may have multiple records for a parent record. Then you want to find all parent records that have certain keywords. Example I want to find all parent records that have both a related keyword record "fat" and a related keyword record "ugly."

I like the technique given in the Moyer and Bowers book:

In the related keyword file go into define fields and set the field options for the keyword field to repeating, with number of repetitions the same as the maximum number of AND criteria that you will ever have. Then create a special search layout in the parent file, but show the keyword field without a portal, and format it to display all the repetitions. Use this layout when you do your search. Enter each separate AND criteria into different repetitions of the field. This should give you the result you want.

Just make sure that you never display more than one repetition on your normal data entry forms. You never want real data to go into anything other than the first repetition.