Portal+Value List Matchfield Update Issue

[KirkR]

Value list not updated until leaving portal - any way to do this?? I think it is a COMMIT RECORD, but how to automagically implement so the user does not have to click button??

1st TO - Company

2nd TO - Business Card (All the typical field from a business card, used to collect multiple contacts at a single company)

2nd TO BizCard::fk_Company_ID related to TO COMPANY::Company_ID; allow create on from COMPANY

3rd TO BizCard MATCHFIELD (Source TO BizCard), where NAME is related to 1st TO COMPANY::MATCHPERSON; allow create on from COMPANY

Portal on COMPANY layout 3rd TO BizCard MATCHFIELD, no scroll bar

Value List NAME, from 2nd TO, related to 1st TO COMPANY; Drop down value list NAME positioned outside portal, used to select a person at a company, and display their contact info in the portal fields. Selecting from value list, sets COMPANY::MATCHPERSON, and the portal display single contact info set of selected person.

Button outside portal, for new contact; sets COMPANY::MATCHPERSON to "New Contact"; sets BizCard::NAME to "New Contact"; sets BizCard::fk_Company to COMPANY::Company_ID

To this point, everything works great. However, on entry of new contact information, the value list is not updated with the new contact name until you click outside the portal. Even clicking on the MATCHFIELD pop-up (ValueList NAME), does not update the value list, even though it is outside the portal. Click anyplace else, and everything is fine.

I assume (ASS/U/ME) that it is a record commit issue, but I would prefer not making the user have to click something to commit the fields, when no place in the remaining application (order entry, inventory, work orders, etc. ) does the user need to click a SAVE button.

Suggestions??

[FestiveEmbalmer]

a couple of ideas:

1.) You already have a button outside of the portal for creating a new record, so you might consider putting global fields for the new contact information outside of the portal and changing the button script to create the new record with that information and clear the globals and commit the record. Then the user never has to spend time editing the records in the portal in the first place and it updates instantly. (Imagine that would help with record lock too.)

2.) Same as above, but put the globals into a popup window that displays during the "create new" script. Same result, but different aesthetics. (Looks awful in Windows.)

3.)Use a script trigger plugin, like Zippscript.

matt

[KirkR]

I have never tried making a TO of Globals relate to a TO of real data. Does this work? I've not thought it through. How would the right set of data get into the global fields for display?? It is not like there are a set of global records - breaks the globals definition).

When you pick the COMPANY::MATCHNAME using the value list, the Globals need to reflect the selected person's data. There is not enough room on the layout to place both the global fields AND the then redundant portal fields.

Right now, this data displayed is the portal record. I'd have to write the matching 3rd TO BizCard MATCHFIELD record back to the global fields for display. Again, there is that trigger to initiate the script to do that, so it would be a 2 step process - a little cleaner maybe.

You'd think that Filemaker's conditional formatting would be the prelude to having triggers for scripts - CF triggers formatting, so it is not a great leap from that to conditional script triggering.

Am I missing something??

[FestiveEmbalmer]

I see the wheels turning!

The globals don't need their own TO but they are in a relationship. See my attached example. There are two creation buttons to illustrate the basic idea and the implementation through a relationship.

Notice that there is a relationship for the portal and a different one for record creation. Records created via the relationship meet the criteria for the portal and are displayed on record commit.

Also worth mentioning is the RELATOR function provided by Alexander Zueiv. I use it to simplify things a bit, but I recommend you make sure you understand how Filemaker's native record creation can be used before using a custom solution.

Script Killing Techniques

createfromglobal.zip

[KirkR]

OK - I came up with (IMHO) a really creative way to tackle this.

As you have to click outside the portal to get portal record to commit, I have hidden (through conditional formatting) the match field popup, so that there is no [visible] way to initiate another portal record entry, until the user clicks a button DONE. This button does NOTHING - no script, no action (initially), BUT it is outside the portal boundaries. As such, just the act of clicking it, commits the portal record.

However, in order to get the matchfield popup to show again, I did have the button set a status field that forces the conditional formatting to show the MATCHFIELD popup.