Mini-counts help

[graemeaustin]

Hi!

I have an events database which contains a file for speeches/sessions. Each session has a unique code called 'Session code' and each session can have a number of bullet points associated with it. The bullet points are contained in the 'Bullet points' field and there is also a 'Bullet point number' field which is where I'm having problems. This represents the order in which the bullet points should appear.

I need it to be editable by the user so that they can change the order of bullet points whenever they want, BUT I want it to automatically fill up with 1, 2, 3 etc as bullet points for a particular Session code are entered.

I have Bullet points number set up to auto-calc a count value when it is created through a self relationship on Session code. The trouble is that this works for bullet no. 2 onwards but with the first one, because no records exist in the self-relationship when the auto-calc is activated, it fails to register.

I hope this makes sense and that someone has come across this problem before (I have another instance of the same problem elsewhere in the database & have the same result!).

Many thanks in advance.

Graeme

[Gogargirl]

I am assuming that your records are the sessions and that you want the bullet point possibilities visible to the user. Here's a way to do this without relationships.

Create a repeating field (BulletPoints) with a different bullet point shown in each repetition. Place a button next to each repetition with a script which will paste that repetition and a carriage return in the field where you want to have the bullet points listed together (BulletPointsList). You can also have a button to clear the BulletPointsList.

If the bullet points are common to all the sessions, you can make the BulletPoints field a global one.

[graemeaustin]

Thanks Alison, but like every bad user, I've forgotten half the spec:

I need to display the bullet points inside FileMaker on our intranet and on our web site.

The order of the bullet points must be able to be changed by the user without involving any other visible fields (because the intranet screen has enough in it without adding any more).

So the ordinal numbering of bullet points must be stored - rather than storing the results of a series of copy/pastes.

Thanks in advance

Graeme

PS Yes you're right, the sessions are the records.

PPS There is (in principle at least) an infinite number of bullet points for each session - which is why I would like a solution which does not hard code maximums into it.

[ March 18, 2002, 09:14 AM: Message edited by: graemeaustin ]

[Vaughan]

Make the bullet points into a related database -- now they'll be records.

To arrange the bullet points, make a serial number and sort by the number. To move them up (or down) you add (or subtract) a bit -- say 0.5 -- to the record's serial number, resort the set then reserialise them again back to whole numbers. Done with scripts -- one for up another for down -- it's not difficult.

Reserialising is done with the Replace[] script step. Because it's changing the values of many records at a time it's possible the process could break in multi-user mode due to record locking -- possible but not very probable.

[graemeaustin]

Thanks - that's half the battle resolved.

I've put the bullets into a related file, but now I still need to sort the problem that I want the bullet order numbers to be automatically calculated with the ability for the user to change that original order.

The idea i have is to have auto entering of data when the record is created so that users can change things later, but because bullets are in a related field, I need a self relationship to count how many bullets there are for this session.

BUT when the record is created, this auto-calc takes place before the session code is entered, hence it only does the calc correctly for bullet no. 2, 3 etc - the first one is blank!

Has anyone got any thoughts on this? I know I am not explaining myself very clearly, so apologies; it's just that my brain is full.

Graeme

[Gogargirl]

Hi Graeme,

There is a way to do this. You'll need to store the sort order for each session in fields in your bullets file, and have scripts to generate the relevant sort orders for each session.

Creating a new session is a bit fiddly as you need new fields and scripts to link to it, but it still takes less than 5 minutes. I'll send you some sample files over the w/e.