too many TOs

[Siri]

Hi,

I have a data base where two tables are joined to each other in multiple ways. My problem is that on the layouts, I often want to display the names that go with the IDs(fk) of records from related tables.

I'm finding that in order to display the name, I'm looking for it is sometimes 3 or more relationships away. So I have to create intermediary TO's and rejoin them to the layout TO.

Is this the proper way of handling the display of data when you are frequently repeating the same relationship but from a different TO.

Example:

Ingred Table w/Type RatioID fk

joined to Type Ratio table w/Type ID fk

joined to Type table w/Unit ID fk

joined to Unit Table

I would create a series of TOs to display the Unit Name.

Except I have to recreate the same series of TO's everytime I want to display the Unit name which is related to that ingredient.

Is there a way to reuse the same series of TO's everytime I want to perform this task?

Thanks for any help.

Siri.

Edited September 29, 2006 by Guest

[John Mark Osborne]

There's no way to reuse table occurrences unless you connect all of your table occurrences into one big spider of a relationship graph. While you conserve the number of table occurrences you need to create, the legs of the spider get crossed making it difficult to follow your diagram. You're better off using table occurrence groups. You'll duplicate table occurrences but you will be able to organize your relationship graph better.

Take a look at this example to see an example of what thjis developer call the anchor/buoy:

http://www.kevinfrank.com/anchor-buoy.html

[Siri]

Hi John,

I watched the PowerPoint presentation from Kevin's site. Its an interesting way to look at the relationship graph. I have to think about how I could convert my graph into his style. One problem might be that I've started with the 'spider' type graph, since it began as the Business tracker solution downloaded from Filemaker.

What I've added has been in groups mainly since I've only used the global prefs table occasionally. Is the method of having one or more global fields related to sub tables the main way you conserve TO's?

My Layouts frequently have Fields from several different 'Anchor' tables as the relationships seem to be more Data or ERD driven. Some of the main groups are created from Inventory calculations that involve Ratios between Units and Unit Types e.g. the weight and volume of a cup of onions is a ratio between Types (like density) for onions.

I would appreciate more info on the spider type RG.

Thanks, Siri