Indexing A portal with All Variables

[Joseph31]

Hello Everyone,

I have a portal that indexes off of a value list. This works well... Is there a way to add and entry to the value list that will index the portal for all entries on the value list.

Joseph

[mattlight]

what exactly do you mean? Do you mean, view all records in that portal as well as being able to be selective?

You could use the method that is used for allowing a relationship to be formed by using part data instead of the full words.

Example, let's use the illustration of searching for someone's name:

Surname: Johnson

In the client database you have a calculation repetition field that splits up every surname

ie

Johnson

Johnso

Johns

John

Joh

Jo

J

Look up another thread in FM Forums for this - but, it would help you out with your problem

You could have you value list start with a word then hyphen then the catagory

Make Value List look Like

Clients - Inner City

Clients - Outer City

Clients - Overseas

Clients

Suppliers - Inner City

Suppliers - Outer City

Suppliers - Overseas

Suppliers

When the value list says just 'Clients' the portal will then display ALL clients whereas selecting one of the other options narrows down the search. Thus, flexible portal that can be used for anything that is stored in the relationship field.

Does this help?

[mattlight]

trying to look for that thread for you - somewhere in here is a thread which has an FM7 attachment which shows you what the repetition field calcuation is for breaking down a field into individual characters and thus base a relationship upon it on the right hand side of the relationship. It should have the words 'think ahead' in it - but doing a search for those two words doesn't work.

Can anyone else find it?

I find that the FM Forums search engine is not very refined and seems to pull up anything it wants. No matter how much info i put in as a search, it always comes up with the same result even if i throw in bogus words for it to search for.

I think you'll find that a lot of the New Post's are entered after people do a search and find nothing to match when in actual fact there is a post present. Will this ever be updated on the FM Forums?

[Joseph31]

Sorry about the lack of detail with my orginal post.

What I meant was view all records in that portal as well as being able to be selective.

I have a value list of brokers... I have a portal that will sort by each name -- depending on a pull down menu of them... I would like way to bring up every broker that I have in my value list in one portal...or just select a single broker to show just theres.

I have looked for your thread that you were talking about and can not find it.

Joseph

[mattlight]

Okay,

So it's a list of Brokers

In the portal is viewed the names of Brokers - all sorted alphabetically

What's in the value list?

[-Queue-]

I believe the calculation you're looking for is

Let([ R = Get(CalculationRepetitionNumber); F = Extend(field) ];

Case( R <= Length(F); Left( F; R ) )

)

[mattlight]

the thread was listed under TYPE AHEAD or at least that was the name of the attachment

[Joseph31]

Not sure where to put that calc. And will my list of names still be there with a drop down?

Joseph

[-Queue-]

That would be the calculation to use for your repeating key, as Mattlight suggested. It would not be used for a drop-down or placed on any layout. It is merely an interface tool.

[mattlight]

I still have no idea what you can look for in a list of brokers in a portal when the value list used for the left hand side of the relationship is actually the list of names of the brokers - what are you looking up in the portal that's not already listed as a value in the pull down menu?

I thought you wanted to either see a selection or all brokers.

Field1 Criterea (i.e.: Personnel, Contractors, etc)

Field2 JobType (i.e.: Broker, Banker, Service, etc)

Field3 Name (i.e.: Joe Bloggs, etc)

Then, by using a calc field like

SearchID [Calc] Criteria & " - " & JobType & " - " & Name [view as Text]

You might get a result like

Personnel - Broker - Joe Boggs

Then using another calculation field you can break that down into a repeating field using this calcuation:

Let([ R = Get(CalculationRepetitionNumber); F = Extend(SearchID) ];

Case( R <= Length(F); Left( F; R ) )

The above calculation field will be a repeating field with maybe 50 repetitions

Then in the other table you will have a text search field called SearchFor

Create a relationship between SearchFor = SearchID

Then, in this other table - the value list that you would use for the field called SearchFor would look like this:

Personnel

Personnel - Brokers

Personnel - Brokers - A

Personnel - Brokers - B

Personnel - Brokers - C

etc

Contractors - Brokers

etc

etc

If you select 'Personnel' it will list ALL Personnel regardless of their job type

If you select 'Personnel - Brokers' it will show ALL Brokers who are Personnel

If you select 'Personnel - Brokers - A' it will list all Brokers who start with the letter A who are Personnel

etc

This way of using a portal and the left and right sides of the relationship means that you don't have to have loads of relationships and loads of layouts displaying data from within different portals. One portal and endless variations of chronological sorting. Remember, this is all chronological namely, it looks for a match based upon the characters position in the sentance or word

P

Pe

Per

Pers

Perso

Person

Personn

Personne

Personnel

you get the point - I hope

This is about as good as I can offer on this. The only other way of doing it is to view selective information via the portal and if you click on a button entitled ALL, it does a search in the Brokers table and displays from the actual table in the form of a list - hence, not using table for all data.

Does this help or is it now even more complicated than before?

[Joseph31]

Wow... All of this just to add a item in my value list that will bring up all entires in the value list.

I will have to study this and see if I learn this. Thank you for all of your help... I am alway learning...

Thank you for your time. I will tell you how it turns out.

Joseph

[mattlight]

I must say that I am becoming very confused by what you even want to do now.

If you a have a value list, surely you can see all the values of the value list?

can you seperate the two things that you have - what you are providing as a query and what you are hoping to view as a result - they cannot be both a value list - or is this what you want? It cannot possibly be the SAME value list.

I've lost the plot on this - sorry, please be more specific with your requirements.

[Joseph31]

Sorry let me expand on this:

I have a value list "Brokers" in a form of a pull down menu that sorts a portal below it. In the portal I have four fields: "Name" "Date" "Amount" "Case No". When I select a broker from my pull down menu the portal changes to only items that are associated with that broker.

What I would like is a value in that list or just a button that says All (meaning not just one broker but all brokers.... This way the portal will change to list all the brokers on my value list.

Joseph

[mattlight]

try looking at this

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=142643&an=0&page=0#142643

it's in the Portals forum with this thread

It is pretty much the same problem addressed - very good!

[Joseph31]

Cool, Thanks... I think this will work great... I have to give it a try... Will Let you know...

Many Thanks

Joseph