Newbie needing portal assistance

[Barncharts]

I recently upgraded to FM7 from FM3. I have a small business that I run with FMP, consisting of 3 files - Contacts, Invoices and Products. I believe these came as templets in FM2.1. They are linked together via "lookup" (sorry for my lack of proper FM terminology) and worked perfectly until FM7. The file I am having problems with is Invoices. I had a repeating field that via lookup would bring over product name and price when I entered the part number. Once I converted it to FM7, only the first row would lookup the requested info - the other fields no longer filled in. I was told from FM tech support that this no longer worked in FM7, that I would need to use a portal. Having never used one before, I am finding this way over my head. At first, I could get the info brought over, but only in 1 row. Then I somehow was able to get more rows, but I would get the same info in each row. Also, the sub total and total functions ceased to work.

I have messed around with Business Tracker and that has helped. I've even toyed with just using that for all future invoices, but I can't get my contacts to import into BT. Besides, I have a lot of special layouts in the other files that I've created over the years that I would hate to lose.

Is there any way to get the lookup function working again with the ability to have different products on each line without using a portal?

[dbruggmann]

Welcome Barncharts!

Some answers and some questions:

>> Then I somehow was able to get more rows, but I would get the same info in each row. <<

This usually means, that you have placed the fields in the row with the wrong relationship (or table occurence in FM7). The portal itself and the fields placed in the first row in layout mode need to belong to the exact same table occurence.

>> I've even toyed with just using that for all future invoices, but I can't get my contacts to import into BT. <<

How did you try it? What went wrong?

>> Is there any way to get the lookup function working again with the ability to have different products on each line without using a portal? <<

This is a bit confusing: If you use lookup fields for product and price in the Invoice table, you don't need a portal there. I think, you should only have to split your old repeating field into a single product name field and a price field. (I understand, that you had ONE repeating field for productname and price, each in one repetition of this field?) If the Invoice table and the Products table are linked via the part number, the lookups should also in FM 7 work. (But the portal you could use in the Contacts table, to show all invoices for a customer with all line items.)

For a way to import your old data and split the repeating field in one step, have a look at this thread:

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB16&Number=108049