Help with moving data in portals

[tomclancyjr]

So, here's the deal.

The pieces:

1: "Quote" database (where my company stores quotes to customers for parts to be sold, etc)

2: "QuoteElements" database (where the individual line-items for the quotes are stored, each as a record)

I have 2 portals in my main layout of the Quote database. One portal shows the items available via a standard one-to-many relationship, based on the Quote's UID. The items in the portal are the line items for THAT quote. Tab to the next record, it adds a new line item, happy happy.

What I'd like the second portal to do, (but it doesn't) is for it to show what I call "common items" that we can simply click and have added to the currently visible quote. Meaning, RAM for a powerMac, isn't going to change spec, so i want to be able to grab the item name, part number, price, etc, and do this with a click.

So, here's how I've started, but I can't finish.

The second portal, is another relationship, based on a NON unique ID of "1" in the Quote Element's Foreign Key field (ie: where it would normally look in portal 1 to relate to "Quote"), and an "1" in an arbitrary field in the Quote database. The list of items over there is fine, shows me the records that I have deemed to be "common" (with a script that dupes the item in question, and replaces its UID with a "1"). This means it has about 20 items or so, and is somewhat adequate, as a copy-paste, copy-paste, copy-paste type resource, but its not elegant. I want to be able to "click" on the common item, and have a new line item created and populated. But, since the relationship showing the second portal is not based on a truly unique ID, it grabs the first record in the list, and won't grab any other records. How can I have the database "grab" the right record? Do I need to make the relationship based on something else that is not unique, and thus maintain the UID of the elements? (like have a "1" entered in a new field for my standard items, and a "0" in that field for everything else)

I'd rather not have to involve another table, I feel like this should be doable, I just cannot wrap my brain around HOW.

Edited February 9, 2006 by Guest
I misspoke about where the "1" was in the remote DB

[tomclancyjr]

I solved the problem myself, by updating to FM 8, and using the Set Variable command. Its a godsend.