I have an order entry database in which each record originally had a container for the artwork that is to be used on the order. The quickest method I had of inserting the artwork was to simply copy the elements in the Illustrator file and paste it into the container.

Now that I've been doing this for over a year and the file is getting rather large, I've decided to move the artwork to a separate file and put a portal with the artwork container in each record. This will keep my order entry file smaller.

Ideally, I'd like to set it up so that the portal would show all the artwork for that customer (I could have it show only one portal record and then scroll through them). Then I could select which artwork would be used for that specific order. Once selected, this would be the only artwork which would show on the order.

Is there a way I could do this -- have each order display only the record selected in its portal -- or is there a better way to approach thiss? What I'm trying to achieve is for the art database to only have one instance of each unique artwork for each customer.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Maybe this is what you need.

container.zip

Edited September 12, 200619 yr by Guest

Could you give me a little info on how this should work? I'm a little lost. Thanks.

It shouldn't be too difficult to have a portal from Orders to Images, based on CustomerID. Then, to select a specific image for the order, you could just click on an image in the portal, and have a script set a ImageID field in Orders to the selected image's ID.

You can easily import your existing images, along with the OrderID and the CustomerID, and re-link them back by using a temporary relationship based on OrderID. But I don't see an easy way to get rid of the duplicate images you already have.

I can follow all that -- but once the ImageID is set for the order, how do you make it so that the portal displays that particular image?

The portal will keep displaying all related images (i.e. all the images for this customer). You will have another relationship from Orders to a new occurence of Images:

Orders::ImageID = SelectedImage::ImageID

Then you simply place the related field SelectedImage::Image on the Orders layout. I would use a separate layout for the selection, so that browsing orders does not require a portal refresh.

Thanks --- works great!