Daily Calendar with Times

[Answers]

I have a database that tracks home inspections, there are technicians, dates, times and duration. I have a calendar that I created in Filemaker that through relationships and portals displays the services on the right days. It has a monthly view and a weekly view. The weekly view has 7 portals for example and 7 different relationships, so it can link the date to date that tracks our inspections and display the information on the right day of the week. The monthly view has many more portals and relationships (40). The problem is a daily calendar with times in 30 minute increments (e.g. 7am, 7:30am, 8am etc...) to have it display all the appointments at the right times. It would require an awful lot of relationships and portals. I believe I would have to create 21 different relationships (7am to 5 pm , 30 min increments) for each technician. I just don't know if that's the best way to go about getting the results I need (?) The other problem is that sometimes Technician has a scheduling conflict, I'm not sure how that would work through a relationship.

The old program that we have moved away from had a daily calendar, and you could actually drag and drop appointments where you want. It looked like an excel spreadsheet, a grid fomat. I was thinking maybe I could populate an excel spreadsheet from filemaker & achieve the same thing. I'm just not sure how Filemaker will link with excel and update automatically.

I have attached an excel spreadsheet to give an idea of the daily calendar. I just need a push in the right direction, and I'm not sure if this is possible. I could also upload my filemaker files with calendars to see if there is a better way.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!

Daily.pdf

[comment]

See if this helps:

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

[Søren Dyhr]

It would require an awful lot of relationships and portals

Certainly not - Comment is right here! It wouldn't require much more than what I show on this graph:

Although it's in danish :

--sd

[Answers]

Certainly not - Comment is right here! It wouldn't require much more than what I show on this graph:

--sd

I'm sorry but I'm not seeing it... I looked at the relationship graph and still not sure how it would work. I have a a day with times listed down the side, 7am through 5 pm , 30 minute increments. The technicians are the columns and I want it to be automatically populated with the job information. So at a glance you could easily see who is scheduled at what time in a daily calendar format much like Outlook's daily calendar view.Could you please elaborate, it would be greatly appreciated:

e.g.

Tech 1

7:00 Home Inspect

7:30

8:00

8:30 Termite

9:00 Well

9:30 Well

etc...

Edited February 24, 2009 by Guest

[Søren Dyhr]

Try to dissect this template of his:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/205259/

It's actually a comparison of two appraches not too far away from each other, but you have slots down to a quater of an hour in his template..

--sd

[Answers]

That definitely helps, I can see how this solution might be workable.I changed it to 30 minute increments, and link it to my events but I was wondering about solving the problem of two events scheduled in the same time slot. I'm not sure how to display that there is a conflict. Right now it just picks up the first event at that time. any ideas

[Fenton]

The basic "test for a conflict" relationship (using date + time or timestamps), assuming an event starting exacting when another ends is not a conflict:

Events::Start < Events 2::End

AND

Events::End ≥ Events 2::Start

AND

Events::EventID ≠ Events 2::EventID

[comment]

I was wondering about solving the problem of two events scheduled in the same time slot. I'm not sure how to display that there is a conflict. Right now it just picks up the first event at that time.

Yes, that is a problem, because you cannot have a portal inside another portal. Possible solutions:

• Do not allow conflicts to begin with (see Fenton's post);

• Display the first event AND a 'conflict' flag;

• Display the events in a calculation field (from Slots) listing all events in the slot;

• Display the events in a repeating field (practically the same as List, but allows click-selection of a specific event).

[Answers]

Yes, that is a problem, because you cannot have a portal inside another portal. Possible solutions:

• Do not allow conflicts to begin with (see Fenton's post);

• Display the first event AND a 'conflict' flag;

• Display the events in a calculation field (from Slots) listing all events in the slot;

• Display the events in a repeating field (practically the same as List, but allows click-selection of a specific event).

[comment]

2. You could simply format any object in the portal conditionally, using

Count ( Events::EventID ) > 1

as the condition.

3. By using the List() function.

[Answers]

2. You could simply format any object in the portal conditionally, using

Count ( Events::EventID ) > 1

as the condition.

3. By using the List() function.

I must be losing my mind, of course, thank you [color:red]Count ( Events::EventID ) > 1, I use that same theory so in the list of invoices you know which ones have multiple services attached.

And I hadn't thought of the List function. Sometimes when you are working by yourself on a project it's hard to see the forest for the trees. Thank you so much for your input!!!