Multi-User Question

[MelJ]

I started out with FMP8 Adv a few months ago and have very little programming background. I'm just learning as I go so forgive me if this is a stupid question. I've spent many hundreds of hours on a solution and decided to give it a try in a multi-user environment.

I found that When user A has a file open and looking at it with a certain find, and user B opens the file and does a different find, it changes user A's view.

Does Server fix this? I was under the impression that filemaker worked just fine in a peer to peer environment.

Thanks,

Mel

[Inky Phil]

Hi Mel

FM should not be giving you the problem as you see it.

I therefore assume that you are viewing the results of your find in a portal and that to select the records for the portal you are marking them in some way. Then you will indeed get a result as you describe.

If that is the case get back to me as it isn't hard to fix.

Phil

[MelJ]

HI Phil!!

You are SOOOOOOOOO correct!

I am viewing this file in a portal.

Enlighten me Oh Knowledgeable One!

Thanks so much for your help.

Mel

[Inky Phil]

Hi Mel

OK heres what to do.

You need to change the relationship that the portal uses.

At the moment you are marking the records to make them comply with the relationship. This is fine in a single user system but is of course messed up in a multi user set up when 2 people mark their own set. The portal will now of course show all records that are marked, result - chaos.

The way round this is to use a global on the left hand side of the relationship and the unique ID of the record in the found set on the right.

Once you have performed your find you need to run a script along these lines on the found set

pseudoscript-

Got to record(first)

set field your global;unique record ID

Loop

Go to record (next;exit after last)

set field your global; your global & :paragraph: & unique record ID

endloop

This script has stored in your global the unique id's of all the records in the found set. This is known as a multi-line key.

Because it is using a global on the left and has not marked the records in any way it will allow YOUR portal to display YOUR found set and of course any other user to display theirs.

You will smile when you see how it works. I know that I did. I remember Ray Cologon stepping me through it (Thanks again Ray)

HTH

Phil

[MelJ]

Thanks so much for the help Phil but I'm at a loss on one point.

I understand the global field and populating it.

How do I set a relationship to the unique record ID on the right side? Do I need to add a field on the right filling each with the record ID.

It may help to tell you that this is a self join.

I'm really working hard to grasp this concept.

Thanks,

Mel

[Inky Phil]

Hi Mel

Yes each record will need a uniqe ID. It doesn't matter that it is a self relate.

I have put a small file together that demonstrates what you want. Hopefully it will help you to understand

Good Luck

Phil

Mels_sample.zip

[MelJ]

Thanks so much for the sample file. I get it now!I know it takes valuable time to enlighten dummies like me and I greatly appreciate it.

I have but 1 more question. Before I go back and modify my scripts, would server remedy this problem as well? I ask this because as soon as my solution is ready it will be used by more than 5 users from the first day, so I will be installing server anyway. I pray that it will.

Thanks,

Mel

[Inky Phil]

Hi Mel

Glad the file helped.

To answer your question:

Running your solution in any form of multi user environment (server or hosted FM file) would give you the same problem if you do not change the way that you gather the info for your portal.

The key to my method working is the fact that the information that the portal needs is held in a global field.

Because global fields are user specific (ie each user can have different info in the same global field) this means that each user can perform their own find and display their own results in the portal despite the fact that all users are using the same scripts, fields and portals.

This is obviously a very important consideration when designing for a multi user deployment.

Hope that helps

Regards

Phil

ps How come I know all of this even though I am not a lot more advanced than yourself? Because of course, I made exactly the same mistake myself first time round :

[MelJ]

One step forward and two steps back. BUT I SHALL PERSIST!!

I've just learned an invaluable lesson thanks to you!

A million thanks,

Mel

[Inky Phil]

You are welcome

Phil