Hello!

I have a calc field that determines a discount based on a global field that represents the registration fee of a "league type" and the actual fee paid.

It is unstored, and in a table called "financials"

I have a "players" layout with a portal for financials. Now here's what's driving me bonkers.. The calc works fine when I open the app and use it on a windows machine. However, on a Mac it will not work. If I go directly to a financial layout(not to the portal) and enter data, it works just fine(on the mac)but not on the players layout. Can someone make a suggestion as to what might be the problem, or where to begin trouble shooting. Thanks.

It's kind of hard to say. But, if you're running OS 10.4.8 on an Intel Mac, then you're running FileMaker 7 under Rosetta. There is a known bug in the mathematics routines of 10.4.8 in this environment. I don't really know the specifics. I'm holding off upgrading until 10.4.9 comes out. Another, and the best solution is to upgrade to FileMaker 8.5, which runs native, twice as fast. But this is only if you have an Intel chip; otherwise I don't know what could be wrong. Do you have the latest upgrade of FileMaker 7?

I'm using a G5 / OS 10.4 and fm is up to date. I created a self join with the financials table. I enter data into the second instance and it updates records in the portal(the original table) All other fields update except the calc. I can't/haven't figure it out..?? yet

This sounds like the classic "portal doesn't update" problem, which has plagued us for years, and is likely to continue to do so for a while. Basically unstored calculations, at some point, become too complex, and the portal just doesn't know to refresh the view. If you go into another mode, such as Preview, then back to Browse, you'll likely see that it refreshes. You can try the Refresh Window step; but I don't know that it'll be sufficient in FileMaker 7 (in 8 they added a "Flush cached join results" to really handle this situation, especially if you're looking "thru" table occurrences).

Another older method is to somehow include the relationship key from the parent in the child calculation. It doesn't have to do anything in the calculation, just be there.

The classic example is a file called "Update Calcs", by Don Wieland, at the bottom of the page here:

http://dwdataconcepts.com/dwdctips.htm

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try what you suggested after reviewing the the info on the link.

Basically unstored calculations, at some point, become too complex, and the portal just doesn't know to refresh the view.

I think it's a safeguard, just like the iteration max on CF's ...a safeguard against endless recursions!

--sd