Portal to Create Numerous Values in a Repeating Field

[Kevin MacHeffner]

Hello everyone!

I have two related databases to hold training records (when people took a class, what it was, etc.). The first file is the name repository which stores information about the student. The second file holds records of classes taken with a unique identifier (the relationship) between student and class. So, each record has the student id, class number, description, date taken, etc.

What I'd like to do (using the student ID relationship) is create a repeating field in the name repository which contains all the class numbers taken by that student (data from multiple records in the related file into a repeating field on the master). Would anyone be able to help on this?

Thanks!

Kevin

[LiveOak]

I thing you might be confusing portals and repeating fields. They are NOT the same thing. What you want to create is a portal to show the classes taken by each student. Stay away from repeating fields, they are a hold over from FM 2 and cause MANY more problems than they have uses. Portals are created in layout mode using the portal tool and defined based upon a relationship. After create the portal and define the number of lines it will show, place related fields from the same relationship defined for the portal in the first row. This should be well covered in the FM manual.

-bd

[Rigsby]

About 3 months ago, pretty much the same question appeared here from someone else. At that time I didn’t have enough time to explain (in full) how to do this, so I just created a quick solution as a demo and mailed it to them – so lucky for you, I still have a small Student – Class related solution – This was really based on Students and grade tests, but the principal is the same. Hope it helps.

I don’t know what version of FMP you are using, so I’ve sent it in 4.1, so may have to convert it with 5.0 or 5.1 – to do this just open the files. FMP will take care of the rest.

I’ve mailed it to you. If you have any questions, just drop me a line!

[Kevin MacHeffner]

Thanks to everyone for their help! I was able to get the relationship and portal to work exactly as planned.

Cheers!

Kevin