Tracking threads

[lark04]

Hi all,

I'm creating a db to hold articles from various sources on a certain topic. Each day articles are collected and a number of these will be used for a daily briefing.

What I am wanting to set up is the ability to link articles together that are of the same or a similar topic - essesntailly threads.

My thoughts are to do this with a self join relationship displaying the related records in a portal.

So I have a layout to 'create a new article'.

My thoughts on creating the thread were to have a link from the 'create a new article' layout that creates a 'new thread article', essentially the same layout except a calculation is used to create a common 'thread value' or link between the articles.

Then threads can be shown in a portal by searching for all articles with the same 'thread value'.

Is this the best way to tackle this problem?

Any thoughts or experience appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[RussBaker]

Dunno if its the best - but it will work. I did a similar thing a couple of years back in a system to tracks "Media Issues". When an issue was created, you could then add new events to that Issue topic and view them all in a portal (as you decribe) with the most recent item at the top.

Then a script so that when you clicked in the portal row of the issue history, you get taken to the main screen which shows that issue in full detail - with attached files (Windows Only), sounds, whatever...

Russ Baker

Canberra, Australia

[danjacoby]

quote:

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Originally posted by Russell Baker:

with attached files (Windows Only), sounds, whatever...

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Whaddya mean "Windows Only"???

[Kurt Knippel]

I assume he means that he used the OLE functions of the Windows OS to attach some variety of documents to the Filemaker records.

[RussBaker]

Kurt and Dan, - Yes, thats what I mean.

I'm a MacMan but for some solutions in Windows I "embed" a file into the database in a container field. In windows its easy using the Insert-Object menu and then show the item as an icon. AFAIK, you can't do this in Mac.

I've found this comes in handy if the database takes frequent scripted imports from excel spreadsheets. This way, I can include a "sample" spreadsheet with the database so that users can (hopefully?) use the pre-formatted spreadsheet as a template so the import order works OK.

Also, for the issues database mentioned in my previous post, it was handy to be able to embed word documents and pdf files and then script a button so that these would open in their parent application. This way, you could keep a record of articles or written responses as the issue progressed.

If there is an easy way to do this on a Mac, I would REALLY WANT to know about it. I'm still using 5.0.3 but have a copy of 5.5.

Russ Baker

Canberra, Australia

[lark04]

quote:

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Originally posted by Russell Baker:

Dunno if its the best - but it will work. I did a similar thing a couple of years back in a system to tracks "Media Issues". When an issue was created, you could then add new events to that Issue topic and view them all in a portal (as you decribe) with the most recent item at the top.

Then a script so that when you clicked in the portal row of the issue history, you get taken to the main screen which shows that issue in full detail - with attached files (Windows Only), sounds, whatever...

Russ Baker

Canberra, Australia

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Thanks for the reply Russell, I'm essentially setting up a media issue DB. I think I'll proceed this way.

cheers!