merging records from more than one file

[Afishinado]

I'm in the steel business. Right now I have a file for customers, a file with inventory, and an order file, I'd love to make an order file that can pull 'found items' from inventory and info from customers to just make one record. I know FM can do it, I just haven't figured out how! Really appreciate some help. [email protected]

Thanks

Mike

[danjacoby]

Create relationships & portals.

Yes, that's the Reader's Digest version, but with relationships you can not only create orders, but have the inventory show the changes as a result. You can also track who ordered what. You can even have a warning pop up if your inventory doesn't cover a new order.

It may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, the power of FMP will be yours to use. Go for it.

HTH,

Dan

[Fitch]

Mike, your question is very broad, it's sort of like asking for the whole manual! If that's the kind of help you need, take a look at some of the support material that comes with FileMaker, for example chapter 10 of "FMP 5.5 Getting Started.pdf" talks about how to work with relational databases (which is what you need to know to accomplish what you're asking).

The only somewhat specific advice I can give you is that you'll most likely need to use a Line Items file in addition to the other files you mentioned. Start thinking about how your files will relate: one customer can have many orders; one order can have many line items; one line item will match one item in inventory. Each record in each file should have its own unique i.d. field, and also a field that can be used to "match" a field in another file... oops, I'm starting to write a book. Have a look at the help files, then come back and ask more question.