Problem with locked (?) portal

[KO2004]

I am at the end of my wits. I have three related tables in my main database. On three separate layouts are portals relating to one of these tables. Two of them work fine. The third one, which seems completely identical, does not show any of the fields in Browse mode. Even the button that links to the related record does not show up, although it is on top of the portal. I don't know how best to describe this. The fields are not locked. Either somehow the portal is locked or there is something wrong with the relationship, although I checked and checked, and everything seems identical to the other portals,

When I use one of the existing working portals I see the button and the fields and I can enter information into them; as soon as I change the portal to the other table/relationship, the button disappears from view (although it is still visible in the layout mode) and the fields are gone (in the Browse mode). What am I doing wrong? Any advice?

[ESpringer]

The button will not show unless there's a record there, so that's as it should be *if* the relationship is not working. Also, do make sure that the fields in the portal really are fields for the corresponding relation. Sometimes we "copy" a portal, change the reference, and forget that the fields still point to a different table. Assuming that's not the problem, then you're problem is not with the portal, but with the relationship on which it's based. You could also confirm this by trying to make a calculation based on the relationship (like a Count of related records) and seeing whether this works. Probably, your relationship itself is not connecting up...

There are many different things that can trip up a relationship.

Are they...

(1) the same type (number/number; text/text)?

(2) yielding results in the other direction? (Displaying table A records *from* table B layout, if you've been stumped getting B records to show via A-table layout?)

(3) offered true matches in your data (i.e., not ruined by an extra space here or there in the supposedly matching text values)?

(4) between a regular field (or a global) in the home layout's table and a regular field in the remote table?

Unfortunately, it's hard to guess in the dark about what's wrong without more detail...

What exactly are the keys to thsis relationship?

[RalphL]

Are you relating to global fields in problem portal? Or to unstored fields? A relationship can be valid in one direction but not the other. Are there values in the key field for this relationship? It sounds like an invalid relationship of some sort.

[KO2004]

I am still not sure what caused the problem, but I created a new file and linked it and now it is working. Thank you all for the input.