Sorting portals by a field in a table related to the related portal table

[wlao]

Hi all,

I am desperately trying to get the items in a portal sorted properly but has so far failed utterly.

I am trying to keep track of a number of images that are used in a number of documents, and therefore I use a Documents layout containing a portal showing the names of the images that are related to each document. And I would like to have this list sorted alphabetically.

Each image can be used in several documents, so I am using a "link" table that connects the (unique) document ID with the (unique) image ID. Thus, my database consists of three tables:

- one for documents

- one for images

- the link table that connects the document with the image

I have tried everything (I think), but the items still seem to be listed in the order they were created:

- I tried to sort the relationship between the link and the image tables by the image name

- I tried a number of other ways of sorting the relationships as well

- I added a calculation field to the link table that "copies" the image name from the Image table, and then selected "Sort portal records" for the portal to sort by this calculation field

- In the portal, I replaced the Image name field from the Image table with the calculation field from the link table

- I randomly clicked wherever could, just to see if it made any difference...

Everything displays nicely, except that the bugger won't sort. Any ideas would be appreciated - I have attached an example with this post.

SortTest.fp7.zip

[wlao]

Well, sometimes it helps to just to ask for help...

I found that my calculation field was set to "Numerical", and when I changed it to "Text", it suddenly worked.

Or maybe it was the random clicking that actually helped..