Beginner Important Questions

[recsx]

Well, i've decided to jump into this FileMaker app for the first time.

I am an avid PHP, MySQL programmer but i cant get a handle on this app.

I would like to convert my previous app designed in pure HTML and PHP to the FileMaker app but i have no idea on how to do my first step.

Which is, say i have a Clients Table Database filled with clients and then i have an Invoice Table Database, and i wouldlike to browse the clients and once i find one i am looking for i would like to click a button to port me over the the Invoice Layout with the Clients ID and information already there?

How is this done?

In PHP and MySQL i creat a dead form with Queries to the data based on the $_REQUEST variables.

I know FileMaker is nothing like this but i cant even find anything that even resembles this kind of thing.

Thanks

[T-Square]

I hope the following points you in the right direction. Terms surrounded by asterisks are useful terms to look up in the FM help.

You will need to create relationships in the *relationship graph* that link a *table occurence* (TO) based on the client table with a TO for the Invoices table via the ClientID field in each table.

Now, create a layout for Clients that lists what you want. You might want to include a *portal* on this layout for the client's invoices, with buttons that will take you (using the *go to related record* script step) to the invoice in question.

Next, create an Invoice layout with the invoice and client info you want. Keep in mind that you can place fields from the related Clients TO directly on this layout, if you don't want to duplicate data in both places. However, many Invoice applications make use of *lookup* fields to pull client info into real data fields in the Invoices table for data integrity over time.

Now, if you're trying to create a new invoice, you could create a script that opens a new window, goes to the Invoice layout, starts a new record, and sets the ClientID to the ID that was passed to the script. Like so:

MyScript:

New Window[]

Go To Layout[invoices]

New Record/Request[]

Set Field[ClientID; Get(ScriptParameter)]

To trigger this script, you'd create a button on the Clients layout that calls the script and has the ClientID as its only parameter.

HTH,

David