Insert Header row in portal between records

[Ginxy33]

I there a way to Insert a row in a portal that will seperate records with a Heading.

example...

BLACK

BLST

BLLT

BLXLT

WHITE

WST

WLT

WXLT

I need it to seperate the entered records for readablity. And when you enter BLACK(maybe from a dropdown list that's BOLD text) in your next drop down list, you only get whats available in Black?

I hope this is clear. I attached a picture of what I mean, maybe that will make it clearer

[CyborgSam]

It can be done. Since a portal contains records from a relationship, the header lines will be records and reside in the same table as other portal records. This will necessitate a flag so that this record's contents are never used in any inventory calculations, summaries, etc. where the record's lack of data could screw things up (e.g. quantity). Some part of the "Black" record will have to relate to all other records with the attribute "Black", and these records will have to be sorted appropriately in the portal.

So, the simplest solution: add a flag called n_Header?, it's 1 when this record is a header, 0 if not. A field will have the text (or an ID) for "Black" The sort order should include the n_Header? as the last parameter, and as a descending sort (so the header's 1 comes before the rest of the record's 0s).

Did I explain this clearly enough?

[Ginxy33]

I kinda get the general idea. I am confused a little about the layout part though. How do I get one row to show up as just the header "BLACK" etc. and the ones under to have the real information? Like the picture above? I can get it to do it with every other row being a header but I that's not what I need it to do.

Could you give me a bit more information? Maybe a mock up?

The picture above is from our version 5 Filemaker. The Bolded headers where entered manualy and bolded manualy. I am trying to cut back on the time used for entering orders.

Thank you for your help so far.

[Ginxy33]

Update:

Although I would still be interested in more information (very intriguing subject) I have come to realize that we have so many options available that even narrowing it down by the color would still make it too long of a list. I am however grateful for the flag idea, I hadn't thought about the problem it would make in an inventory calculation. I will defiantly use that.

One more thing, I want to do a calculation to Bold the text if Item Sold and Item Free field are not entered. I tryed to put this in the flag field I made to keep track of the Header fields.

It looked something like this

If (IsEmpty ( QtyFree ) and IsEmpty ( QtySold ) ; 0 & TextStyleAdd (fk_InventoryItemCode; Bold ); 1)

This doesn't work, and it won't let me put it in the InventoryItemCode as a calculation either. I'm wondering were then, can I put it?

Edited December 19, 2005 by Guest

[CyborgSam]

I've attached a quick database to demonstrate some of these concepts. The row color is a calculated container field, it alternates through the 3 RGB tints. The text color of each row alternates through RGB and CMY. The Calced Text filters based on a value two different ways. The general idea is that these calculations can be modified to use flags, etc to get the desired result of the header, etc.

I'm not sure why the bold didn't work, take a look at how it works in this sample.

Yes, there are way too many options. Remember that there is more than one right way to do a job, so if you get a right way, don't obsess on it :

Ginxy33.zip

[Ginxy33]

Thank you so much, that was an awesome learning tool. Good advice too, I needed that. I get a little compulsive at wanting to do things the right way!! expecialy when I don't know which way that is. :

[CyborgSam]

Join the crowd. I bet most FileMaker developers are some combination of:

1) OCD

2) Anal Retentive

3) Type-A

In other words: perfectionists! If we weren't we would use Access or SQL... :eeek: