Solution / : Multiple Portal Row Selection

Description: This file will show developers how to allow end users to "select" portal rows in a single or multi user environment and display that selection. Further it allows selection of multiple portal rows simulating general OS functionality.

Solution Status: Finished

FileMaker Version: FileMaker 7+, FileMaker 9+

Author(s): Genx

Date: 09/11/06

Disclaimer:

FM Forums does not endorse or warrantee these files are fit for any particular purpose. Do not post or distribute files without written approval from the copyright owner. All files are deemed public domain unless otherwise indicated. Please backup every file that you intend to modify.

[color:red]Please note that there is a revised copy available for FM 9+ (possibly 8.5+ though not tested) which is a lot more generic and easier to implement. You can view and download that copy at our blog.

FileMaker 9+:

http://www.filemakerdesign.com/content/filemaker-portal-multiselect

FileMaker 7+:

MultipleSelectionExample.zip

Edited November 16, 200916 yr by Guest

Cool and useful function. Good work : Keep it up.

Glad you like it.

Hey Genx

- Neat

Phil

Glad you like it aswell. Just ignore the tooltips, i got half way through doing it this morning and went to do something else, then was just copying fields, so they're sort of randomly attached.

They're not relevant or critical don't worry, i just think they look cool :

Hey GenX:

Very neat. Thanks for sharing.

Al

I'm just happy everyone is getting something useful out of the file :

Hi Genx,

This is great ... I have only one v small thing that anyone can alter themselves but i thought you should be aware of ...

On a mac if you keep the ctrl button held down to make your selection the second time you click you get the filemaker mouse click menu come up (ctrl click on the mac is like right click on a pc).

The default multiple selection button on the mac is the apple key - modkey value - 16, so you may want to add in an OS calc for the modkey. (suppose rather than testing for OS you could just put in an "or" modkey=16 as PCs don't have a 16 value key.

Thought this may be of use.

best wishes,

Stuart

Hi stuart,

Sorry, i've haven't dealt with macs for a while so this never really occured to me. Nevertheless, the files updated to reflect your suggestion.

Nicely done!

That works like a dream ... love the shift selection... this should be standard in any solution

Great work.

Edited September 17, 200619 yr by Guest

It's nice to give something back to the FMforums community, and i myself need to integrate this into a few solutions that i've just been to lazy to :)

Hi Man.

"good" no more words :

:)

Yay, past 200 views : ... Anyone else got any ideas for something they've seen done before and/or would like to know how to do that theythink the community might benefit from?

I've got a bit of time on my hands and am willing to chuck together a few files that you guys think might be handy for the newer FM developers.

Hey Alex,

I was going to implement the same basic thing into our solutions today when I remembered that you had posted this example a while ago. You saved me some time. Thanks. :

Anyway, the only things that I think maybe you could add is one last Else If before the Else.

Else If [ PrimaryTable::_kg_selected_ID = ¶ & ForeignTable::PrimaryKey & ¶ ]

Set Field [ PrimaryTable::_kg_selected_ID; ¶ ]

This will allow the user to click off the last record hi-lited if they wish to.

Lol I love the way my brain works. I needed to implement this and I actually had to look at my example file to work out how I did it in the first place, hehehehe. Though i suppose this was 6 months ago now.

Hmmm, there is one case where the script will stuff up -- If the user hold's down control or option when selecting the very first row the intial return isn't put in which causes a few statements to not evaluate correctly meaning that that first selection won't show up...

Change this at line 9 in the Simple_MultiSelection script:

From:

Set Field[PrimaryTable::gFKStore & ForeignTable::PrimaryKey & ¶]

To:

Set Field[if( IsEmpty(PrimaryTable::gFKStore) ; ¶ ) & PrimaryTable::gFKStore & ForeignTable::PrimaryKey & ¶]

For anyone who's interested I've posted a new updated example on our blog site. This revision relies on features specific only to FM 9+ (possibly 8.5+ though hasn't been tested), but is much more generic and easier to implement.

http://www.filemakerdesign.com/content/filemaker-portal-multiselect

Hey Alex,

I’m happy everyone loves your solution and I’m sure you’ve enjoyed the accolades. But I must tell you I got nothin out of it. I found it boring, un-insightful and totally devoid of best FileMaker functionality. The scripting is juvenile, the calculations are menial and the layout lacks in appearance and substance. It took me a moment to realize that I had inadvertently opened one of my own solutions. My bad, sorry there buddy!

There is one thing however that’s very wrong and terribly sad and that is your statement [color:red]“Sorry, i've haven't dealt with macs for a while so this never really occurred to me.” This is indeed a sad-sad-sad statement of fact my friend! I admit using a PC once myself but was smart enough to grab it by the cord and throwing it out the “Windows”!

Well done Alex even though I’m sure you got the idea from me!

Love Ya Man,

Harry

Edited November 27, 200916 yr by Guest

Genx -

Thanks for a great headstart. I am a newbie with FM so am trying to get up to speed quickly. I am working (or attempting to work) on an app for wife's business with the following scenario:

1. developing field app to collect large amount of data to avoid errors/save time, etc.

2. large table - 200+ fields where ~40 are table lookups with up to 20 multi-select options each with large amounts of text. As result, screen real estate is getting scarce.

3. in addition, I need to store the selection ID's within the 40 multi-select fields in a comma-delimited fashion to be able to pass this data on to another independent system.

Basic research shows that this "could" be marginally accomplished using the out-of-box Checkbox Control within FM11, but this creates UI issues due to the volume of fields being collected, and does not allow me to store the ID's for integration downstream.

I then considered standard table lookup created in a modal dialog to simulate standard Pop-Up or Drop-Down Control (as there are 80-100 of them on layout, as well), but due to my lack of programming skills, there appears no easy way to store selections in main table.

How have you and other experienced FM gurus handled this sort of problem in past? I assume this comes up on a relatively frequent basis, since FM does not have a true multi-select drop-down control to solve the problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

One quick question. After you select the items in the portal rows you want and you perform what ever script you need to perform with them, how do you get them to deselect or un highlight?

Set the global field holding the selected ids to "" aka a blank string.

Well done there Alex...

With your change it works great on both PC and Mac with no need to start looking back! BTW you should know that it works poorly on my Nintendo Play Station. Maybe the worst part of this post is the number of young FileMaker-In's saying "Nintendo what"?

BTW using your solution Space Invaders has fuzzy war ships and Pong has an elongated ball. If Ender is lurking that means "Not Round". Please go to work on that, hey maybe a custom function or two.

You did good Alex, we always appreciate your sharing and the fine craftsmanship of your work. Nintendo not withstanding...

Harry

Edited October 26, 201015 yr by Guest

Hi there!

I've been trying to implement this on my own for some time and this looks really nice.

What I'd like to ask however has to do with the way I need to integrate/modify this selection tool in my app logic.

What I'm trying to accomplish is this:

I need a way to track "object subscriptions to groups", i.e. I have a table of "Objects" that sometimes are members of "Groups".

What I've done so far, is Create an "Objects" and a "Groups" table, joined by a Many-to-many relationship through an intermediate table called "GroupMember". I can therefore have multiple memberships for the same object in different groups and vice-versa.

What I need to implement though is a graphic interface, where out of a portal which will display all existing groups i will be able to click/unclick (i.e. activate/deactivate) memberships for the current object.

Do you have any ideas as to how this can be implemented?

Perhaps one of these could better suit your request:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/355429/

http://fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/233897/

For anyone who's interested I've posted a new updated example on our blog site. This revision relies on features specific only to FM 9+ (possibly 8.5+ though hasn't been tested), but is much more generic and easier to implement.

 

http://www.filemakerdesign.com/content/filemaker-portal-multiselect

​Does anyone have an updated copy of this..? This is exactly what I am looking to do!