Help for newbie creating rental database?

[Dhunter]

Greetings all,

I am brand spank'n new to FM, I have searched the forums, done some reading etc, and have not found an answer to my question. I'm quite sure its a simple problem and I am missing something very basic, but I'm missing it nonetheless. Sorry if I'm asking a stupid question or posting to the wrong forum.

I am setting up a small equipment rental system for a TV production company. The database includes several types of equipment: camera, lights, tripods etc. I am trying to set up a database in which I can add a show's production ID number in a field for the gear in question, search by that ID number and print out an inventory report of the equipment that has been assigned to the show. I need to keep the types of equipment seperate (perhaps in their own tables?), but I need to be able to search across all the different types of equipment.

It looks like I can create a different table for each type of equipment but how does one search across tables, and make a report out of it?

thanks very much for any help.

-Douglas

[mr_vodka]

You should set up three tables.

One for the Items, one for the production, and one join table to join from Production to items we can call that JoinRental.

So you can have all the info about the production in the production table. HAve a list of all your items available for rent in your items table.

Then in your join table, you can set a each production to multiple items.

You can use a portal if need be to show your rental items.

My suggestion to you is to read David Kachel's whitepaper for novices as well as getting a great book 'Special Edition Using FileMaker 7'