Newbie needs relationship help

[mikebeck]

Hi everybody, I'm new to the forum and to Filemake Pro, so thanks for helping out.

I have a table(1) of contacts for my company. This table includes fields for name, contact info, category, and a portal for dates on which each person was sent a package. Another table(2) contains names, categories, dates of packages, and the details of the package contents. So, when I click on a package date in table 1, a window opens up with the record for that package in table 2. The tables are related through the name fields.

Is there a way I can relate the same two tables through the category field, as well? As I have it now, when I enter a new package in table 2, the package date appears in the portal in the record with the corresponding name in table 1. Can I make it so that I can enter a new package in table 2, with just the category field filled in, the name field left blank, and the package date would appear in the portal in every record that has the corresponding category in table 1?

I guess what I'm asking is can I relate these two tables by more than one field, but as on "or" clause instead of an "and" clause?

I hope some of this makes sense. Thanks.

-Mike

[RalphL]

WELCOME to the Forum.

It looks like a many to many relationship. A contact can receive many packages and a package con go to many contacts. What you need is a join table between contact and package.

In contact have a field contact ID. Use it to relate to the field contact ID in the join table.

In package have a field package ID. Use it to relate to the field package ID in the join table. Information likle date sent to contact would also be in table.

There are no OR relationships in FMP7.

[transpower]

If each contact of a particular category gets the same package (for that category), then perhaps you should change your database architecture. The second table would not have records of each mailing to each individual, just each mailing of a category. In this situation, then, you can relate the files by category, rather than by name. HTH.

[mikebeck]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think the problem is that sometimes we send to to an individual, and sometimes we send to a whole category. So, I would still need the capability of relating packages to individual contacts.

[transpower]

OK, then create another set of table occurrences and relate those two by category. So your Relationships Graph will have four tables displayed.