Dynamic Portal Rows ?

[agtjazz]

Hello, I would like to add some portals to my database that is served IWP using FMSA 8.0 and have some questions:

1) Are portals compatible with IWP?

2) How do I make the row count dynamic? For instance, I have set in the layout that the portal should be 10 rows. But I was hoping that I could set it up if a user wanted to add more data that the portal could be dynamic. Is that possible?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[Genx]

1) Are portals compatible with IWP? - Yes

2) How do I make the row count dynamic? For instance, I have set in the layout that the portal should be 10 rows. But I was hoping that I could set it up if a user wanted to add more data that the portal could be dynamic. Is that possible? - Add a scroll bar, otherwise no.

[agtjazz]

Thanks so much....

[agtjazz]

I don't know if this is a portal issue or IWP, but I set the scroll bar to be able to add rows to the portal and that works perfectly.

Except in IWP

I put the database back onto fmserver (FMSA 8) and tried to get it thru a webpage (both firefox and safari on mac and ie on pc) and can NOT add a row to my portals via the web.

If I open the file from Filemaker advanced via the remote open, I can add rows to the portal.

Any suggestions?

TIA

[Genx]

Hmmm, maybe you have to add the rows manually... Sounds IWP'ish.

I.e. Make a script to go to the other layout and manually create a related record, then come back to the original layout.... if that makes sense.

[agtjazz]

Is this a known bug? Can you point me to where the known "issues" with IWP are listed? I searched FMI's website- but came up short.

I have about a page that has about 8 portals that could have up to 15-20 lines in each portal. It's for dept's to list last year's activities for Awards or Publications or Grants. And they list them by person.

For example:

Under Econ> Peer Review Publications

There is

1)Laura Johnson for UnDiscplined Theories etc

2) Stan Brown for XYW

3) Michael Long for ABCD

4) John Johnson etc

How would that button going to another layout to create a related record work so that it's user friendly?

Thanks in advance for you help.

[Genx]

IWP doesn't actually see rapid jumping from layout to layout so something like this would work:

Set Variable[ $id ; Table::PrimaryKeyField ]

Go To Layout[ yourOtherLayout ]

New Record / Request

Set Field [ RelatedTable::ForeignKey ; $id ]

Go To Layout[ original layout ]

PrimaryKeyField and ForeignKey are just arbitrary names and will depend on how your tables are related -- you could have multiple keys, in which case you might want to use multiple variables to temporarily store the data.

[agtjazz]

But I must be doing something wrong. Filemaker says that a web user can create and edit portal records

http://www.filemaker.com/downloads/documentation/fm8_instant_web_publishing.pdf

Have you had a web user create or edit portal records in a portal?

[Genx]

I don't know -- don't really like IWP so i tend to avoid it.

[Tori Mitchell]

Please keep in mind that while IWP is a valid solution for presenting simple things to a user who has very basic needs, it is in no way designed to give you the flexibility of a real CWP solution or all the ease if use of a FMP client.

Try expecting that you *can't* and go from there. If you're having problems doing things one way, do it another and save yourself the trouble of hours barking up the wrong tree.

Also, are you trying to make layouts that are FMP *AND* IWP layouts? If so, this is not the reccomended approach as the two platforms are very different.

[agtjazz]

Mike & Genx

Thank you very much for your advice. My intention was not to question Genx's advice but to see if I was doing something wrong in my implementation.

Today's plan is to go with Genx's suggestion about creating related records.

Re: FMP & IWP layouts, this database will only be accessed via the web (IWP).... no one will use Filemaker to remotely connect. So I really am not making 2 layouts per system for this database.

So.... how difficult it is to move from IWP to CWP in 6-9 months? Can my database be basically the same with minor tweaks, should we venture that way or will my db be scrapped?

Thanks again for all the advice.

[Tori Mitchell]

The question of CWP is something that you should look into *only* if you need it. CWP with FMP/S 9 is relatively simple *but* doing anything outside the Pre-Built CWP templates will require some fairly extensive knowledge of PHP which is a topic unto itself.

There's always XHTML/XSLT CWP but... that's... umm... yeah.

In short, the database that you're accessing is just fine to use with CWP but doing so is something quite advanced.

[agtjazz]

Thank you

I am lucky to say that on my team is a great guy who knows PHP very well.