Understanding Relational Databases Problems and Questions

[yuanchueh]

Here is my situation. I need a database to do 2 things. Firstly, I need 4 pull down bars. Each successive bar is created by the progressive bar chosen. ie. You have a movie database, and you first select Genre, which creates a list of movies, etc...

After that is done, i need one more thing. When the 4'th pulldown has been selected I need to have a box filled in with a description. Is this possible, and if so, can someone point me in a direction to look, or show me how to do this. I am new to Filemaker, and couldn't figure it out. Thanks for the help...

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by Yuanchueh:

I need 4 pull down bars. Each successive bar is created by the progressive bar chosen.

After that is done, i need one more thing. When the 4'th pulldown has been selected I need to have a box filled in with a description.

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Well, you'll want to start with something simpler. Hierarchical value lists are not the easiest topic to tackle, although FMI have made great strides in making them easier to implement.

Basically you need to setup a database which stores you value list items and categorizes them appropriately. Then you need to seup relationships to that file between the fields that your pulldowns will feed and your actual value list database.

Each value list will define the relationship to the next value list. Once you do the first one, the rest will be easy, but I fear that you are biting off quite a bit here for a beginner.

Scriptology by Matt Petrowski and John Mark Osbourne would likely help you out with some of these advanced topics, but I fear that you might need some more basic learning aids first.

[yuanchueh]

CaptKurt, thank you for your reply...I have gotten the Relationships working perfectly. Can anyone answer this question though. When i use the web published version of my page, my pull down bars disapear. Is this a limitation of FM?

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by Yuanchueh:

CaptKurt, thank you for your reply...I have gotten the Relationships working perfectly. Can anyone answer this question though. When i use the web published version of my page, my pull down bars disapear. Is this a limitation of FM?

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Oh, dear gawd! More likely this is a limitation of your HTML, your web browser or your specific configuration. Once you web enable, you are no longer in Filemaker, you are in a web browser.

Try posting this question into one of the web forums on the site here and one of those gurus might be able to answer your question.

[yuanchueh]

Thanks