Planning Question ?

[guy tanguay]

I have start planning and designing a Database ( i'm new to FMP).

The main purpose of that database is to keep track of specific infos of every shot on a Visual effects project. Each shots have is own record with multiple layouts to see the different data related to that shot.

Now i have multiple projects that each have multiple shots. I think i should create a Table where every record will be a specific project and the fields should content some major Variables that will affect the table where each shot are enter in.

Now, How can a link a record In My "project Database" to specificly affect the database that have all the records of shots related to that "project" and have the users "automagicly" affect only (browse,create,enter data,etc) the shots inside that project.

thank you in advance

guy

[stanley]

Guy:

What you're describing is a straightforward parent/child relationship, and the simplest way to connect your two tables would be to have an auto-entered non-modifiable serial number field in your project database. In your related (child) database, each record related to that parent project would have a field in which that same serial number gets entered. Set the relationship up that way. Sorry I can't go into more detail, but something's just come up.

-Stanley

[guy tanguay]

Hi Stanley,

Thank you for your reply.

Question:

Can that relation be define by a specific field in my project records (I mean other them a ID/Serial number.

For Exemple i have a field "project Name" and a "Project initial". "Project initial" is very important to me because after, those initial are gona be in front of every files (other them Filemaker files) that the project are gonna produce, we are following a strict naming convention.

Specific exemple:

Project Name Blue Rocket

Project Initial: BR

So, does BR became my "auto-entered non-modifiable serial number field" in every record of my child database ?

[stanley]

Guy:

Sure, you could use that, so long as you are very definitively not going to use (for example) "BR" for more than one project.

-Stanley

[guy tanguay]

So How can I do that ? I'm looking around for couples of hours now and there abviously something that i don't get

[Rory Bowman]

If I understand your question correctly you want to create a unique identifier (UID) which can begin with initials. I do this a couple of ways. One is to use a serial number field whose next value is "BR001" (auto-enter BR001 then validate that the field is unique), but a better one is to have some sort of record prefix which then combines with a number or serial number and then validates as unique.

I have used this first method in one-offs and the second one in a few cases (to generate UID's, name classes in a registrar DB, etc). I do it by creating a field called "RecordNbrRaw" which is an unadorned serial number field (strict number, auto-enter, unique, cannot be empty) and a prefix (which can be static for the table or selected from a radio button or pulldown). A calculation then puts the prefix in front of a calculation. I use:

Prefix + RIGHT(1000+RecordNbrRaw, 3)

I like this one because it makes the UID's of equal length, and understandable. The prefix field can be set to automatically enter its value from the last record (so long as you can change it) if many of the same prefix will be entered in sequence.