Conditional relationship problem

[blindref]

Yet another bug that I have in my first major developer solution. Let me see if I can explain.

I have a relationship set up between two files- lesson & indicator. The lesson file gets certain indicators based on which subject is chosen in the lesson file. From there, the indicators go into a check box field where the user checks off the ones they want included in their report. The problem is, if the indicator is a longer length, you are not able to check the box. No matter how far I expand the field in layout, the indicator gets chopped off at this certain length and is unusable until it is edited down in the indicators file (which I would like to avoid doin)

Whew!

Any ideas or fixes?

Thanks,

Scott

[-Queue-]

It sounds like you may have options in the value list that are too similar. FM 6 only indexes 20 characters of each 'word' up to 60 characters per line. So if you have two or more options whose letters match past 20 characters, they will be stored as the same option. You might try making the options more unique and definitely don't allow them to have more than 20 letters per word or more than 60 in total.

[blindref]

Queue-

Thanks for the reply, a little over my head, however. I went to define fields and made sure indexing was off. Do I need to set a max characters to a really high number?

Thanks again.

[-Queue-]

In order for a value list to be based on a field, the field must be indexed. So you don't want to unstore or disable indexing.

In FileMaker, abcdefghijklmnopqrst and abcdefghijklmnopqrstu are seen as the same 'word' since words are only indexed up to 20 characters. If you add a space between the t and u, then the words will be seen separately. This means that if you have, say, a long category name followed by a subcategory name for each option, then you may have problems with FileMaker recognizing the difference between those of the same category. If any two options have matching characters past 20 letters and are not broken into separate 'words' or match up to 60 characters, you will no doubt have indexing issues.

This is why I suggested that, if they are similar, to make them as unique as possible. It is best if value list options are concise and obviously unique. It's easier on the user and allows the system to work properly.