Can anyone explain a fundamental method to using portals.

For example in using two tables on a many-to many relationship one needs to create join table and then have the join table be the basic portal, though the fields can come from the other tables.

I can't get my head around why this should be the case. I'm a novice and its not clear when and why you should use particular tables over others when using portals.

Even though there are clear relationships by using a different table occurence as a portal often brings a completely different set of results.

Is there a clear method to this?

Portal can be used when the relationship between two tables is one to many or many to one. A many to many relationship can be best represented by keeping the primary keys of both the tables in a separate table and use a list view layout if possible.

What do you mean by "then have the join table be the basic portal, though the fields can come from the other tables."

If you are using portal then you would show the fields from the join table in the portal and not fields from other tables.

Portal can be used when the relationship between two tables is one to many or many to one. A many to many relationship can be best represented by a list view layout.

Portals can be used quite effectively in many-to-many relationships. Besides being able to view data from a table or tables related to the join table, you can also create records in a join table via a portal.

What do you mean by "then have the join table be the basic portal, though the fields can come from the other tables."

In a many-to-many relationship you'd base your portal on your join table AND then show fields from a table or tables on the other side of the relationship.

If you are using portal then you would show the fields from the join table in the portal and not fields from other tables.

See above.

Look at a portal as a window that offers a particular perspective of related data. When it's based on a join table, you can see data from tables related to the join table, through the perspective of the join table.

Kent, I appreciate your efforts to make my reply and description clear to Merric. I understand the efficient use of portals in many to many relationship. I was not very clear but by referring to use a list view, I was trying to explain Merric that there are also other approaches where you can work with the parent child tables.

Thanks for your help.