Hi,

Not sure if this is the correct forum but I think my problem is to do with portals.

What I want to set up is a dynamic customer entry field on a jobs worksheet. It is reasonably important that this sheet is as simple as possible as mouse to keyboard movements should be limited, and end users have low end keyboard skills - i.e. not computer operators)

On this jobsheet what I would like staff to be able to do is start typing the name of the customer and the field will auto fill based on typing. If the customer is a match (previous customer) it will then auto populate client details including client ID and if appropriate their account number. If not allow these details to added to the clients table. Alternatively, where the account number is already known the staff member can fill in the account number and the client info fields then populate.

As the dbase is relational I would also like the client information retained in a clients table and not doubled stored in the jobsheet table.

I am a total newbie to Filemaker so if this is too simple apologises up front.

Regards and thanks in advance.

Hi Greg,

There are a couple ways to do such a process, but it is really something that the user will have to be a part of. After typing in a Client name, they will need to be prompted to choose whether any of the matching records are the Client they were looking for (it's possible that two Clients could have the same or similar names.)

My suggestion is to use a traditional Find for the search part of this process (you could use relationship matching, but I like the flexibility of the tools available in Find Mode.) Then have the script brach based on whether records are found or not, giving the user the choice to Find Again or select one of the found records as the client to view/edit.

I had a similar situation and found a great filter example from NewCentury (I have attached their file with explanations of how it works) and adapted it to my needs. I'm also attaching a test file with some data. The filter.fp7 is from NewCentury and has all the basic info and explanations. Basically the User looks up the comapny name and if it exists you click "New Contact" button and it creates the new record. If the company doesn't exist you click New Company button and it opens a new company record. I'm sure you can take it apart and use what you need. Good luck.

Al

Contact_Test_DB.zip

Thanks for the replies. Will tryout and let you know how I go.