Multiple/variable portals in the "same space"

[cellmaker]

Curious if anyone has come up with a nifty technique for displaying different portals (one at a time, in the same space on the same layout) depending on some variable condition.

I have different sets of related information that I would like to show in one common area of a layout, but I do not want to duplicate layouts in order to show the different portals. Being able to hit a button (effectively, to change a global field) and then show a different portal in a "portal space" would vastly improve some layouts. I messed around with the portal "visibility" technique to try to do this but could not come up with a workable solution.

Thoughts?

[CoZiMan]

Hows about messing with FIELD visibility instead? You can also change field TEXT color Just a thought. Haven't tried it.

[Lougee]

Have you looked at Matt Petrowsky's "Dynamic Portal Display" sample? Check out www.filemakermagazine.com. This particular example is subscriber-only but if you're not already a subscriber, you should be. It's money very well spent. (And no, Matt didn't pay me for this endorsement. )

Abbe

[cellmaker]

Yes, I should check that out.

Thanks for the info.

[bruceR]

Depending on how complicated your data structure is, you can roll your own single-file design even in FileMaker 3. You just make TableID one of the fields. This makes it very easy to do what you're talking about. See attached FM7 example.

Multitable.zip

[cellmaker]

Bruce -

Very groove-esque. It would be interesting to try to adapt that for use with more than one related table (with a sort of meta-table?). Thanks for the file.

[cellmaker]

Very nifty, Bruce. For my needs, I'm really using two different tables, but with some deep thought it might be possible to create a third "virtual table" to show data from the other tables in one space.