I'm a newbie to FMP, and currently am doing a trial to see if I can get away from the problems I ahve with MS access.

I have an application that is somewhat inverted:

The normal view is the summary, but I want to click on things to get more detail.

I've built a database for orienteering. An orienteering control is a marker attached to tree or fence post in the field. Each marker has a bunch of data associated with it, GPS coordinates, local description, maintenance history, who placed it, when it was last checked, used in a meet, found in a meet. This is the top level.

The second level are clues. These are what the participants are given to find the markers. A control can have from one to many clues.

The third level are clue histories. These record what meets each clue was used in. Can range from zero to many, althoguh most of the time I'm only interested in the most recent half dozen.

In access I had panels, and sub panels that could be turned on or off by clicking a + sign in the field that defined the relationship, so that I did't have to see the whole thing all the time.

How do I do this in FMP?

E.g: I want a layout that shows multiple records

from the markers database; A clickable device for each marker record that when clicked displays the clue records for that marker; and each of of those in turn has a portal that shows the last N records of the usage for that particular clue.

At this point I think I'm looking for the wrong term in the the help files. Hints appreciated.

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It sounds like to me that you've got are fairly normal relationships ( < is "many", in its direction):

Meets --< Meet_Markers >-- Markers --< Clues (assuming a clue is tied to its marker)

Meet_Markers being a join table. It should be possible to navigate or view through these relationships. I don't know exactly what you mean by "panels" or "+", if those are widgets in the relationship chart, or what you see as the interface. We have different terminology, and probably differences in how relationships are defined; but basic relationships would be much the same I would imagine.

But you should be able to build a reasonable interface in FileMaker for this. It would be a bit much to describe the whole thing. Each entity would be looking from a different direction.

The main interface tools we have are List views (many records), going to a Form view (1 or a few records); this is a simple switch of layouts, no change in current record. Then, in a Form view you can also show a "portal", which is like small embedded window into another table's records.

There is also the Tab Object, which allows you to combine views on a single layout, with different portals in each tab; allowing you to see different related records via portals.

To see Meets (usage) for a Clue you'd need to be on a clue record, looking at a portal either at or through the Meets_Markers join table. Another possibility is to click on a clue within a portal and open a new window with those records, using the relationship to find them (instead of viewing in a portal). Different ways to show the same data.