Importing into repeating fields...

[Alejandro Vargas]

i know this may had been asked about 1000 times, but i searched...and searched.....and searched and no luck...

please helpt me!!!

the thing is, that i'm using Miva Merchant, and this software creates for

itself a database .DBF

well, the database i need to access is an ORDER database in which there are

fields for products...the thing is that it creates lines for each

product...beuing something like this

Order#|name|product|price|shipping

12345|alex|chicken|9.99|ups ground

12345|alex|puree|5.99|ups ground

12345|alex|peppers|2.99|ups ground

12345|alex|book|29.99|ups ground

and so on...the thing is that all of that is just one order and it need to

be imported into 1 record...the next record will be a different order number

using the same system above.

1) i cannot manipulate the database as it is already created with 1000's of

data inside.

2) i had created in filemaker pro 7 v1 all the fields and everything imports

great, except for the products part, in which it creates 1 record with all

the info for every product so if i have 5 order with 5 products each i endup

with 25 records and each 5 of those have the same order number.

any help will be appreciated..

i'm open minded too, so if u have a suggestion on hwo to accomplish this

without using repiting fields, GREAT! as long a sit works and does what i

want it to do, i oculd care less!

Windows XP running SP2 Filemaker Pro 7 v1

little to no knowledge whatsoever on databases....

[The Mad Jammer]

First off, repeating fields is not the solution.

The scenario you are describing is perfectly viable. You want the products to be on their own file and if you have 5 orders with 5 products on each then, yes, 25 products have been ordered. Each order is comprised of one or more items (products). Let's define a couple of files, MAIN, and ORDER which is the file you describe above with the fields Order#|name|product|price|shipping.

The MAIN file is the master and contains one record for each order placed with a unique order number for each record. If you define a relationship in MAIN, lets call it defORDER, with the ORDER file using the order number as the key in both files, you will establish a 1-to-many relationship, meaning one record on the MAIN file could have any number of associated records on the ORDER file. If you put a portal on a layout in the MAIN file and then insert the fields from the defORDER definition, you will see all of the items associated with a single order. Make sure that you set the portal properties with the vertical scroll bar on. When you define the relationship you can also select "Allow creation of related records". This will permit the user to add products to the order and automatically tie them to the order.

Hope This Helps

The Mad Jammer

[Alejandro Vargas]

hi, i appreciate the time you took to answer my question, this is something i will definately try today.

another thing is that the ORDER file as u called it...is generated by a software and there's only one way in which the software generates this file.

does this changes things?

i will completly forget about repeating fields....

[The Mad Jammer]

another thing is that the ORDER file as u called it...is generated by a software and there's only one way in which the software generates this file.

does this changes things?

Not quite sure what this means but...

First off, I would call the file with the line items(products) something other than ORDER, perhaps ITEMS or PRODUCTS or LINES. I used the name ORDER from your original post.

As long as there is a record in the MAIN file that contains the order number then the relationship with the ITEMS file will work. So you could keep importing the data from MIVA as you described it into the ITEMS file and add a MAIN record for each unique order number.

The Mad Jammer