ghost record in portal

[antoniadis stelios]

i have a layout with a portal.The layout takes the records from its own table and the portal from a related table.The problem is that one record from the portal is like a ghost.The row of the record in the portal is blank i cannot delete it,i cant change it,and i cant see it.But if i click it it sends me to the related record in another layout which is blank too.I don't know if it's a bug of filemaker or something else.Please if you have any sugestions i would like to hear it.

[Inky Phil]

Hi there and welcome

Try reindexing the field(s) that the relationship is based on (turn off indexing, come out, go back in and switch it on again).

This has worked on more than one occasion in the past

Phil

[LaRetta]

I hate to mention this but I can say that in five specific instances for us, a single ghost record indicated corruption. If the file crashes while on a record, it can 'forget' that record exists. I would take this possibility seriously. Even an uncrashed file can get a single record corruption. As a test:

Change one of the portal fields to the ID which binds it to Main. Is it still blank? If so, go to that related table and perform a Find for = in the ID field. If no blank IDs are found, you know you have problems. To satisfy yourself, perform Find with * in field. If all records are found, it'll confirm it. Usually, you won't be able to even FIND that blank record. If you keep performing finds on different fields, you can hit the right combination and it will pop to the top of the list (still all fields blank). But it will display ghosted; as an unrelated record appears. Even deleting the record doesn't necessary solve it. If you've suffered corruption (whether just data corruption with no crash or a full FM crash), you'll need to take steps to repair it. Post back your results. If you have ONE corrupted record, it will crash FM every time that record is accessed via script. So even a single record-corruption shouldn't be taken lightly.

Oh! And welcome to FM Forums!

LaRetta

[Søren Dyhr]

a single ghost record indicated corruption

Could be true here, but I'm leaning more against a portal showing another relation than the fields in the portal ...and wouldn't hessitate examining such things first!

--sd

[LaRetta]

Understood, Soren, and I don't throw corruption possibilities around lightly. But if all fields from ONE record are blank that is not normal regardless of what relationship the portal is based upon. Even one blank field from all records would indicate incorrect field specification on the one field. Duplicate records within the portal also indiates improper TO specification. But again, one record is another thing; indicating a problem with the related record itself. Just my opinion ...

I'm only suggesting it as another possibility to be considered. If that one record's ID wasn't indexed, the record would not even appear.

LaRetta :wink2:

[Genx]

Why don't you try deleting that blank related record?

[LaRetta]

I would suggest against deleting it. How will you know which record was deleted? Records are important. If it *is* damaged, a recover, export and import (into new empty clone) can sometimes save it (at least enough of it to identify which record was corrupted so it can be retrieved from prior backup). Besides, I've tried deleting them during testing (ha ha) and, if it *is* corruption, it can move to another record (and wouldn't confirm that the FILE might contain other damage). I think it is important to first determine if the file or record is damaged and if it is deleted, you may not be able to make a firm determination.

Genx, really! :therethere:

[Genx]

LOL!..

I tend to just recover files if anything happens, so i can't help myself. I'll stop advising re corruption now, i promise.

[antoniadis stelios]

Hi guys.Your help Phil and all of you was great.Thank you very much.I try reindexing the field that the relationship is based on and my proplem belongs to the past.Before i do that, i was trying to delete it and after the save the ghost record was there again.So i reindex the field and the ghost record in the portal was disapeard. :