Can I do this using Portals?

[chris kearney]

For each record in my database, there is a billing section. On that section I have a pull down menu with the tweleve months. I want to be able to choose a month and have three fields be filled with information. I want it to display billing information based on the selected month. Im assuming I should use portals and a seperate database. Can anyone explain to a total newbie how to go about setting up this process? Any help would be GREAT!

thanks in advance

chris

[ESpringer]

I'm wondering whether and why you are attached to using a pull-down menu and fields within the main file... I suspect a portal might do all by itself...

I take it your records in this main file represent people or businesses to be billed (I'll assume they're customers). Each record has a unique customerID, right? (There are some useful posts about making effective unique ID fields)

Then, I imagine, you have transaction data. Every transaction or billing item will belong to one particular customerID.

(1) So you need to set up a separate file: File>New Database (put it in the same file directory on your drive; call it Billing.fp5 or whatever) with fields for customer ID, date, amount, etc. (Details will depend on many things, and it might even turn out that you want more than one file doing this work if there are "line items" on each billing transaction.) Populate this file with at least a couple records matching your first customerID to make it easier to recognize success along the way...

(2) To create a relationship between the files, go back to the customer file (you can make a mirror relationship in the other direction later). Use File> Define Relationships... and use the dialogue to navigate to and choose the newly-created "Billing" database. Have the field customerID from the main db match up to customerID in the Billing file. Name the relation something like "Bills matching customerID"

You may want to choose "Allow creation of related records"; at least turn that on to see how it works. Later, you may also want to add a sort order to the relation, particularly if you want recent data to show at the *top* of your portals. Now you have your relation.

(3) To place a portal for it on a layout, use the layout's portal tool, which looks like the corners of a rectangle. Draw a generous space, use the pop-up menu to choose your "Bills matching customerID" relation, let it have a vertical scrollbar...

Once it's there on your layout you can drag fields onto it. When the dialogue asks you to Specify the field, make sure you get the header pop-up to point you to fields in the related billing database. Add any number of fields; resize; change the number of rows...

Now if all's done well, you can try going into browse mode and going to that customer who should have related records. Assuming they show up, notice that you can also go to the first *empty* row and type into those fields. What FileMaker does behind the scenes is to make a new record in that Billing file FOR that customer. So, the customerID field "knows" which customer you're talking about, and it makes records with whatever data you specify for the other fields.

Now, once you have this portal, you may find everything you need is within easy scanning-reach. But if you really need to see JUST the values for a particular month (say), then there are various ways... but I'll stop there for now.

[John Caballero]

Hi Chris,

Just to add to ESpringer's exellent portal tutorial, you can have fields auto-enter information based on the value you select in a drop-down menu, even in a portal.