Nonprofit Contact/Organization lookup

[matthew wengerd]

I am creating a database for the non-profit for which I work and plan to manage contacts via two tables: "Contacts" and "Organizations". Each has a serialized ID.

While entering data in the "contacts" table, I would like to be able to look up an organization ID and add it to the "Organization ID" match field. If the Organization has not been entered, I would like to do so (I think that's just a "create record from...." thing with a portal, right?). I would also like to be able to do the opposite (look up Contacts when entering an organization).

A simple drop down list won't do because there are already over 5000 entries in the "Contacts" table and several hundred in "organizations."

I have no real idea how to script, so if that's the solution, I'll need some guidance.

Thank you so much in advance.

Edited October 10, 2006 by Guest

[Genx]

Not 100% sure about your question, but you mention "a simple drop down won't do"... Try using a drop down list with auto complete, see if that helps.

[matthew wengerd]

That actually might do fine. Now I need to figure out how to do that.

I guess I'm having a hard time organizing the relationship to make this work.

I'm dealing with two tables:

Contacts and Organizations. Each has a unique ID. Both "Organization ID" and "Contact ID" are in both tables. Each of these fields is a serialized auto-enter in its respective table.

I want to set up a system where whoever we can con into doing data entry can, from the Contacts Data Entry Layout, look up an Organization to see if it exists in the "Organizations" table and enter its ID in "Contacts::Organization ID".

I also want to be able to do the reverse (Look up a name in Contacts to add a contact ID to organizations).

If the Organization does not exist, I would like to create a simple way for the data-enterer to create a new record in "Organizations" that creates a new ID and enters the name of the organization in "Organizations::Organization Name".

Edited October 11, 2006 by Guest