how to summarize within a portal on the fly?

[soxsoxsox]

I have files set up like this:

1. Invoices

2. Invoice line items (sales)

3. Inventory

An invoice can contain multiple line items, with the possibility of one particular inventory item appearing more than once. Invoices are related to invoice line items via key field Invoice #. Invoice shows line items via a portal.

I want to be able to see a summary on each invoice of items invoiced and quantities summed by item.

E.g.:

Here are the sales line items on an invoice:

item 1 - qty. 6

item 2 - qty. 3

item 3 - qty. 5

item 1 - qty. 4

item 2 - qty. 2

I want to be able to see something that shows these results:

item 1 - qty. 10

item 2 - qty. 5

item 3 - qty. 5

What I mean by "on the fly" is that I want the invoice to automatically generate the report rather than having to create fields for "total sales item 1," "total sales item 2," etc. There are too many individual inventory items to work it this way.

I know that creating a concatenated field like "Invoice # item #" comes into play, but I can't figure out how to get the report part to generate.

Any help would be appreciated.

Version: v6.x

Platform: Mac OS X Jaguar

[spb]

This sounds like something that needs to be done directly in the line item file, rather than in a portal. You'd need to use subsummary parts to get the item totals and you can't do that in a portal. Are you printing your actual invoice out of the portal? If so, there are many problems associated with printing invoices in this way.

I print my invoices from a layout in the line item file, where nothing is in a portal and I have total control over how it looks and prints. In your case, I'd make a list layout in line items that had a subsummary part where the body part would go, and no body part at all. Then put a total field for total qty directly in the part.

Your scripts from where you are before you need the report could isolate that invoice's line items, sort on item # (to get the totals included and updated). Then print or view. A nav button would take you back where you were.

The effect would be very similar to a portal. One click to view totalled list, one click to get back where you were.

Steve Brown