Omitting blank records in portal rows based on a field

[Roxy201]

Hi Everyone,

Is there a method that I can apply to a layout that features a portal based on "Events". The Events table was populated to display time values in 15 minute increments. I'm wanting the portal to only display the records that have data in the title field of the Events table.

The current relationship is Days:Date = Events:Date.

Thanks,

R

[comment]

Well, you could define a calculation field (result is Date) in Events =

Case ( not IsEmpty ( Title ) ; Date )

and use this for your relationship instead of the Date field.

But it sounds like your problem goes deeper than that. You should keep a separate table for "real" events, instead of entering event data directly into the "slots" table.

See also:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/185603/

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/176396

[Roxy201]

Hi and thanks for the speedy reply.

The suggested threads were great to read, and I have based this solution on John Osbourne's Calendar Conundrum, so fab to read some additional ideas around this topic.

I have a tabulated layout that is really just a viewing pane for a various info. To add an event I was planning scripting that to the Events table and adding it from there. There is definitely NO adding events via the portal.

Just a wee bit of info re the database itself, and it's purpose, it's a solution I am working on for my sister who is a bit of an Xmas junkie and begins planning for it in October (family photos, baking etc...) She files all the info at the end, but has no real way to compare anything ongoing, and duplicates it all again next year! I've included a basic budget, contacts, recipes and I really am aiming for the simplest user interface I can possibly create.

So back to the tabulated layout. When the DB is opened, it opens on the main layout, and displays info based on the CurrentDate. When I populated the Events table with the Times, I trimmed it back to a 13hour day, and made the increments 1/2 an hour instead of 15 mins, and started the time at 7:30 am and it finishes at 8:30pm.

To summarize the Events planned for the day, rather than have the portal displaying the Events from first (7:30am) to last (8:30pm) I was hoping to just display the portal rows that correlated to a Time slot based on whether the "Event" has an event in it. Thus, reducing the amount of space the portal will takes up! And then just navigating the database from this main screen. The "DAYS:View" layout in the Calendar Conundrum list all the TimeSlots for a day, and I can certainly see the validity in that in many different scenarios.

Hopefully that sheds a little more light, and I will apply the suggested calculation in the original post. Is there anything there that could be a potential problem longterm?

Thanks again :P

[comment]

I am not sure we are talking about the same thing. You say you populated the Events table with time values in 15 minute increments. I say you should populate the Slots table, and keep the actual events in a separate table.

Then you can construct two relationships (or rather two relationship chains) to display the events:

1. To display events against a grid of pre-populated slots:

[color:blue]Viewer -< Slots >- Events

Here, the portal is to the Slots table, and you place fields from Events in the portal row.

2. To display events against a grid of pre-populated slots:

[color:blue]Viewer -< Events 2

Here you make a portal directly to the Events table, so that you see a list of the date's events with no empty slots.

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Note that a viewer table is not really required - it could be just another occurrence of any table.

[Søren Dyhr]

I have based this solution on John Osbourne's Calendar Conundrum

In that case, take a look at how I probably would deal with it, one of the problems you face is that you might clear an event, but not delete the corresponding record, hence the use of Ugo's method...

--sd