Adding new records in a new portal

[Inky Phil]

HI everybody. Forgive me if this is too obvious for words but I just cannot get it.

I want to show all the records in a table so I have a portal based on a self relate to a constant.

I want the user to be able to add records as well as edit the others.

I have all this working IF records exist within the table.

If there are no records I get a message asking me to create a new one (I expected to be able to just add records through the portal - cos I can if there are already records there). Once I create the new record then I can enter new records within the portal and for some reason I end up with a blank record at the top of my portal. I assume I am doing something wrong and would appreciate any guidance.

I have attached my test file to demonstrate the problem

TIA

Phil

testa.zip

[Søren Dyhr]

This is a hen/egg question ...how would you write in the portal of a record not there yet???

You must make a condition in the script that turns you to that particular layout, that ask if a record exists in the table, and if not create a new one.

But I wonder as to how you arrived to that tight spot???

Then there is the problem with the blank record in the top, it's the newly created one ...so the script must be forced into that line ...but if you ever think of using the solution under IWP is the scriptstep greyed out!!!

--sd

[Søren Dyhr]

I've thought further, it's the selfjoin'ing that really doesn't make sence here. What virtues are you going to optain with a constant... why can't it be it's own table connected with the cathesian product realtiontype???

--sd

[Inky Phil]

Hi Soren

Please forgive me if my approach does not seem logical but I am only just learning 7 and what seemed easy in 5 needs a new approach in 7 and I am not a full time developer.

I think I tried a cartesian join but it would not then give me the option to enter new records in the portal. I will try again. Thanks anyway for the tip on checking for no records and then scripting accordingly. I was just hoping to go to the layout via a button and without a script.

Regards

Phil

[comment]

You cannot create new records thru a portal - you can only create new RELATED records. If there is no parent record, there cannot be a related child. I don't think this is something new in v.7.

[Inky Phil]

Thank you comment. That is where I am going wrong. Of course - I have done this in 5 before but only with related records - of course!

Now I feel stupid again (nothing new there then !! )

Thanks again for straightening my brain out

Regards

Phil

[Søren Dyhr]

Thank you comment. That is where I am going wrong. Of course - I have done this in 5 before but only with related records - of course!

Comment rephased what I said, but as foreigner to the anglosaxon discourse ...is it important for me to know, why it didn't made sence when I wrote it ...please???

--sd

[Inky Phil]

Hi Soren

We have a saying over here 'You cannot see the wood for the trees'

Basically this means that you can have so much information that you cannot see the information that you want.

You where correct when you said that the self relationship was the problem but if you would bear in mind that

a:) I am a complete amateur, only just getting used to 7 and I think I am approaching it with rather too much trepidation and respect. It strikes me I should just slap it around a bit rather than try and understand it

b:) I am no spring chicken and so my brain is more like a steam engine than a G3. I do get there in the end but there is a lot of gurgling and hissing in the meantime.

When comment pointed out that I had no master record and therefore I could not have any related records then as if by magic all the trees disappeared instantly and I could see the wood. It was not that what you said was wrong, it was just that he used key words that did it for me.

For what it is worth I follow the posts here in the forum everyday. I also speak 2 languages other than English . My knowledge of FMP is tiny compared with yours. Also neither of my other two languages are of a standard that would allow me to offer advice in a technical forum such as this (can't even do that in English!).

I guess what I am saying is that I think you are doing a fine job with the contributions that you do make.

Thanks for your help Today and in the past

Regards

Phil

[Søren Dyhr]

it was just that he used key words that did it for me.

But my phrase "how would you write in the portal of a record not there yet???" ...unfortunatly uses what grammar solves in my language, but usually in English is done differently with sets of standard phrases and standard expectations to what might be said at all, both between the lines and explicitly.

--sd

[QuinTech]

I think "parent record" was a good choice of words for comment. "Parent record" and "child record" are phrases that, I think, make the situation much clearer, especially for new users.

Your phrase, "a record not there yet", was a little ambiguous. Is the parent record or the child record not there yet?

Jerry (languages: one.)

[Søren Dyhr]

Is the parent record or the child record not there yet?

I know what creationists will say about the hen and the egg ,,,but was the hen a chicken before becomming a hen - then??? I think the matter is less ambigous in pagan europe

--sd