Duplicating Related Records

[mountfield]

I have a database that has multiple tables, to represent Visual Effects shots in a movie. One table - Shot - breaks down the shot into items such as description, day or night, length and so on. This is the master table with a unique shot number field as the main form of id. A second table - Element - breaks down the images required in each shot - Live Action, CG, Stills and so on. This is the related table, with the shot number used repeatedly for different elements.

Shots are often duplicated, but the shot number field needs to be changed to differentiate things. As soon as the shot number changes, all the elements related disappear. I need to make a quick and easy way to duplicate a shot and give it a new number that relates to the already entered elements.

So my question is - I would like to find a way to duplicate the master and the related fields, and change the numbers in all of them - anybody know if this is possible? As you can easily delete related records, there must be an easy way to duplicate/edit them as well. Any help any of you can give would be much appreciated.

[CobaltSky]

Hello mountfield,

There is no in-built automated function in FileMaker Pro for duplicating and updating a set of related records along with the original (parent) record. In fact, much of the machinery of database management is directed towards avoiding duplication of entities.

However there is nothing to stop you building a script which grabs details of the various related records and then does a quick tour of the relevant tables duplicating and updating each related record in turn, before returning to the main table and creating the duplicate there.

If you insert a 'Freeze Window' step early on in the script, the user need not be aware that focus has (momentarily) shifted fromt he table/layout in which the 'duplicate set' command was issued.

[bruceR]

You're using a Mac. It's easy. Assuming you have portal relations set to auto-create.

Create a layout that has the master fields and a portal. Place on this layout ONLY data fields, no calcs.

Perform applescript:

copy every cell of current record to datalist

create new record with data datalist

You're done.