Portals-good or bad?

[noi]

Hi there,

I’m very new to portals, but somehow I find that portals are quite useful to an extend =)

I’m creating an image database using tabs, and i had my image data records displayed in the portals, but when I delete a particular record, all my records will be deleted. I tried the delete record script and the direct delete record in the Browse Layout using the Menu bar (, ) but both will delete all my records. Plus, once I do a search, I can’t view all records in the “Image Overview” tab. How do I rectify it?

And, is it possible to use a global container to contain the portals? Coz I just want to have 12 images/portals to be viewed at one time, so if I have 20 images, I would like the 13th image onward to be viewed in next page. But how to I do that when I do not how many images I will have??

If you have any good suggestion than using portals, please please do let me know!

Thanks in advance!

Khimnoi

Testing_copy.fp7.zip

[aldipalo]

I could not find any portals in your example so I can not answer that problem. Based on your question I also must ask what your definition of a portal is?

I have a question for the remainder of your application. Are there many photographers? Are there many pictures for each photographer? It looks as though you are setting up a flat file instead of a relational database and it may be easier to accomplish your goals with a relational DB which is FM's forte.

If you have one to many relationships I would suggest the following tables (AT LEAST):/

Photographer

Pictures

Partners

Sales /*Related to Pictures (perhaps?)

The reason all files are deleted is because you only have one table. So, of course if you delete on one side you delete all the records. With a relational DB you can delete a child record without deleting the parent.

If you haven't already I would suggest you read White Paper for FMP Novices (version 1.10 : update released 7/10/06)at

http://www.foundationdbs.com/downloads.html

hth

[noi]

I used the portals in the Image Overview tab.

To be honest, i dont really know what portal is. i read from the filemaker help available in the program that portal can be used to display records. initially i wanted to use thumbnails to display my records but apparently, thumbnails font are too small (tried changing it but cant) & it can only display 3 labels/info for each image (but i have 9 fields/labels to show). so i chose to use portals =)

yes i have a lot a lot of images to store & my images will continue to increase.

it did come across my mind that maybe i should have more than one table but wouldnt that make things more complicated?

but thanks for giving me the advice i will try it out.