Real beginner help – Dependent list and fields

[noregret4life]

Hi,

I am completely new to Filemaker, and need some help. I searched the forums, but its hard for me to understand some of the things you discuss here.

So as easy as possible please

My database calls for the following structure:

Payment type collected =

*Hourly Rate

*Set Fee

If "Set Fee" then i would like the following to appear in new fields next to "Set Fee":

*Amount

*Payment activity (Track dates, and payment amounts that were made on those dates) subtracting from the total "Amount" entered

If its "Hourly Rate" then it should just be left as that in the dropdown menu, with no request for further info.

The main question is really: How do i get Payment type to be a drop down > then select one of the options > conditionally requesting for more data fields or hiding extra data fields?

Thanks in advance.

Edited February 21, 2008 by Guest

[Paul de Halle]

Hi

There are two tricks to making fields appear / disappear on a FileMaker layout.

The first is useful to make a field or group of fields appear or disappear based on an option, that doesn't require lots of choices in your appearing field. Use a single row portal over the fields and then have it become true based on your entered value in your pop-up field.

The second allows you to have multiple options of fields appear, but to make it really slick you need an event plugin that can run a script on exiting a field (i would suggest EventScript - its free and works well). You then hide your groups of fields behind a tabbed area on your layout. Making the border or the tab area invisible and naming the tabs and different objects. Then based on the selection by the user in the pop-up list a script runs that selects the appropriate tab. You will also need to make sure you build the tab choosing script into any record navigation scripts to make it seamless.

Hope this makes sense.

Cheers

Paul