Portal Behavior Question

[K1200]

Being new to FMP (I’m using version 8), I’m trying to figure out portals. In particular, I’m trying to learn how to cause a portal to display a different set of results after it has displayed its initial set of results.

I prepared a simple database of “Categories of Purchases” and “Items to Purchase”, along with two layouts to view and maintain the lists/items.

The Primary Screen shows the defined lists properly and, by defining a GTTR button beside each category, it enables me to call up a Secondary Screen showing the contents of an individual list. Everything works as expected on the Primary Screen.

However, almost nothing is working on the Secondary Screen. If I define the layout to “show records from WinTest”, the correct items are displayed in the portal. But I’ve found no way to change to a different category once I’m on the Secondary Screen -- other going back to the Primary and clicking another choice.

I’ve tried three approaches: 1. Making the displayed list ID a pop-up. 2. Typing in a new ID and clicking on a "Refresh" button. 3. Defining a “selection portal” beside the displayed results so I could initiate another GTTR request from the same screen.

For my planned use of FMP, I prefer method #3, but the selection portal only displays the ID of the requested List. In fact, my Lists table isn’t even offered as a choice when defining that portal. But what I would really like is to know is how to make each of the methods work – since understanding FMP portals is my goal.

I've searched a variety of posts related to portals and if the answer was in one of them, I wasn't able to see it.

Any guidance or information will be appreciated.

WinTest.fp7.ZIP

[Fenton]

If you just want to flip between lists and show the result in a portal, you could use a global field to hold the temporary List choice. Base your Items portal on that instead.

WinTest_fej.zip

[K1200]

Fenton,

Thanks for the timely response. The light is now on.

I just wasn't considering that a script would be necessary. FileMaker has so many useful bells and whistles, I figured I was just missing something. But basing the portal on a global field gives me almost total flexibility in what choices I'm able to provide the user for making the selection.

Many thanks.

[K1200]

Especially for anyone starting out with FMP --

I've attached the results of my test of portal update methods. Maybe it can help someone get past the point I was stuck at for a while.

The only remaining issue with the file is that the Category Description field on the Secondary Screen doesn't track the displayed information. I'm still looking at that one.

WinTest_Updated.fp7.ZIP