Editing portal contents on a 'platform'

[Siri]

I'm a new user trying out techniques I'd like to use later.

I read that it is cleaner to edit portal contents in nearby fields instead of in the portal.

The way I understand this idea is that you transfer the record that you'd like to edit to the'platform' by copying the data into a 'global record' in another table. The fields on the 'platform' are actually fields from a seperate table and will then be copied back.

See Vendor_Item_Platform layout

1. How do you make the portal non-editable or display only? Is this actually just the regular portal with a script attached to the rows? How do you get rid of the edit lines around each box.

2. Is the global field supposed to be in a seperate table (or can it be).

3. In my case, the portal is into a join table for a many to many relationship. I'm not sure if this is preventing me from displaying the fields on the 'platform' correctly (I'm assuming the platform is just a graphic area on the layout)

4. I think the UI table should have a relationship to the Vendor_Item table but I'm not sure why.

Thanks, Siri

Inventorytest.zip