Certain Fields Not Populated

[ohucan2]

Hope I explain this correctly: certain fields in a table/layout are not populated; ie I click on New PO while in a Jobs Table. That new PO in the PO table should have the project name, company name, etc. already in the record (about 5 conditional fields), but only 4 are populated. In previous versions of this file (it's commercial), this worked just fine, but now I have to select the company from a drop down menu.

My question: where do I look to change the function of this field so it automatically filled?

[bcooney]

Do you have developer access?

[ohucan2]

Depends what you mean; I have access to about 98% of the file.

[bcooney]

Specifically, can you get to the Relationship Graph in Define Database?

[Lee Smith]

In previous versions of this file (it's commercial)

I'm more than a little concerned about this statement. Who developed this commercial product. You, your company, or an outside developer.

I believe what Barbara is hinting at is, do you have the highest access permission?

What is the 2% that you don't have access to?

Lee

[ohucan2]

Yes, I can. Might take a bit of fishing, is that where the problem lies? I thought maybe the field itself had some display option that was unchecked, but yes I can get in there.

This product is a commercial one, and I think this version (for FM9 was rushed a bit because there are a lot of little issues that don't work as nicely as the 8.5 version.

[bcooney]

You're not answering Lee's question. Do you own this file? If not, messing with it could violate any terms of use.

I'm guessing, but you describe a typical setup. User clicks New PO on a Job form. Script grabs the JobID, switches to a PO form and creates a New Record. It then populates the PO's foreign JobID. As soon as the PO gets the JobID, the fields for Project Name, CompanyName, etc. lookup values from the Job record.

This assumes that a Job can only have one Company and Project related to it.

So, if I had access to the PO table's field definitions, I'd look at the fields that are lookups.

[Lee Smith]

Who made the file. Is this one of the files that are included with the FileMaker Application?

Added:

There are several reasons we need to know this, including the obvious ones like what rights you have under your license agreement.

If this is a commercial product, then the company that is selling it, usually supplies supports their work, and you should be talking to them about your problem.

If this is one of the files that were included with the FileMaker Application, then we have set up a special forum for these files, do to the problems of modification.

In any event, we attempt to protect our fellow developers, and if this was your creation, I know you would appreciate that.

Lee

Edited November 24, 2008 by Guest

[ohucan2]

I appreciate your professional concern; I would not try to alter someone else's copyrighted work. I own the file and the right to make changes

I'll look into the look-ups; thank you.

[ohucan2]

I used to work with my homegrown Double Helix database many moons ago, and the look ups were easy to understand. For some reason, I draw blanks when thinking that through in FM.

[bcooney]

Start by looking at the definition for the Company ID in the Jobs table. It should be a lookup, just like the ProjectID.

However, given that you can select a company using a drop-down list, it seems that the developer redesigned the PO form. Perhaps you can create a new PO directly (rather than start at Jobs)? If so, he probably expects you to select a Company, which then narrows the next selectable field (conditional value lists).