Newbie help - selecting multiple items from portal

[spk]

Please forgive me if this has been posted already. I did a search and was unable to find the information. If anyone could direct me to a previous post or an example I would be most appreciative. Also, if this is in the wrong forum, I also apologize.

The situation is as follows. I am trying to build a quoting system for my office. I have a list of shelves and a list of options that go along with those shelves. I want to assign a list of available options for a given shelf from the master list of options. The way I have it set up now is with the shelves in a dropdown and a list of all options in a portal. I want to be able to click on items in the option list and assign multiple options for a given shelf model.

For example, if I have shelf model XYZ and a master list of options, I want to add options 1,2,5, and 9 to model XYZ, so that later when I enter that shelf into the actual quote, I can then choose from options 1,2,5 or 9 to add to that particular line item in the quote.

Essentially I want to create a product/option matrix. Hope that explains it.

FileMaker Version: 5

Platform: Windows XP

[CyborgSam]

Welcome to the forums!

Instead of a portal, you could make a value list with checkboxes, thus allowing multiple entry.

Will this work in your case?

[spk]

Thanks for the welcome. I think check boxes would actually be easier to do, for me and for the prospective users. Will I still be able to point the results to another file with the product/option matrix? If so, how would I go about doing that? Again, if it's been done, just point me in the direction of where I might find the answer. I'll RTFM and STFW from there.

[CyborgSam]

I'm not sure what you mean by "point the results to another file with the product/option matrix". Have you mapped out all your data and the relationships between files? Are the relationships the issue?

[spk]

I think the problem is I'm in a MySQL mentality. I know FM is relational, but it's not quite the same as standard SQL. Anyway, if I were doing this in MySQL, I would create a table made of 2 foreign keys, 1 would be fk_shelf_id, the other fk_option_id. Each row would be a unique item based on the matrix formed by the shelf ID and option ID.

So I'd like to have a table (I believe files are the equivalent in FM) that takes the data and places it in a product/option matrix:

fk_product_id | fk_option_id

_____________________________

1|2

1|6

1|8

1|9

2|2

2|3

2|4

(Sorry, the table didn't come out formatted. )

And so on. So what will happen is that when I build my quote and I choose shelf 1, it will show me the options available for that given shelf. HTH.

[CyborgSam]

One way to do this is using conditional value lists. There are many examples of this, I've attached one I downloaded a while back, but the author didn't sign his work and I forget where I got it...

FileMaker Version: 7

Platform: Mac OS X Panther

Conditional Value Lists.zip

[spk]

Thank you so much for your help. This is a great group here.

[spk]

Okay, now that I've got the ball rolling, I've hit a roadblock. Since I'm not intimate with the field types and the FMP nomenclature, finding answers is a bit more difficult.

Anyway, my problem is this- I've attached an example of the problem. I have two files, a shelf file and a line item file. The shelf file has the model and a description. The lineitem file pulls the model names from a value list, and I'd like to have the corresponding description pull up. I tried referencing the field but it doesn't work. I've tried all iterations of field types and lookups and so on, but cannot come up with the answer.

Thank you, smart folks of FMForums, for pulling me through FMP and helping me onto the road of success. I too have helped many a n00b, so I know at times it can be frustrating, but also rewarding. I hope my time with you is the latter.

test.zip

[spk]

*bump* Can anyone point me to the correct place to STFW or RTFM?

[-Queue-]

Relate shelf_model to shelf_model in both files. You had the description related to <unknown>. It doesn't really make sense to relate the description to anything, if that's what you want to 'pull' into the other file. You want to relate the ids that match.

[spk]

It was that simple? Geez!!! Queue, thanks, I had a feeling I was overthinking it.

[spk]

Okay, I'm moving forward. What I've done is use a checkbox value list that allows the user to choose the options for a given model. Now, I'm building the line item portion where the user chooses the model, but I'm trying to create a portal that will display all those options for the model chosen and let the user define quantity, which will in turn define an extended price. So it will look something like this:

QTY | OPTION | PRICE | EXTENDED PRICE

I'm beginning to think this isn't quite the task for me.