Displaying a child field as check boxes in a parent layout

[Ziphius]

I have catalog of people, each person with a unique ID. The related child table has a field that lists individual physical characteristics for each person (one to many relationship, e.g.: ID#001 has blue eyes, brown hair, tattoo, etc.). Is there a way to have the child field display as check boxes in the parent layout so for each ID I can see all individual characteristics checked off? This would be helpful for searching for a particular person by simpling checking off those characteristics to help find an individual. I know I can create a value list and manually go through each ID and check the appropriate boxes but the database is too large.

[bcooney]

Welcome to the forums, Deako.

In your physical characteristics table, what fields do you have. For example, if you had these two fields:

Characteristic: Eye Color (selected from a value list of characteristics--from a table of characteristics ID Name)

Value: Blue (selected from a related value list. That is, a given choice of CharacteristicID would determine what the content of the value list is for the Value field.

What is your structure?

[bcooney]

Here's a demo of how I'd structure this.

Characteristcs.fp7.zip

[efen]

From my reading of the OP the characteristics are all listed in one field.

The attached file uses such a field, with two value lists derived from it. The checkboxes relevant to the individual are then checked by a script

person_type.zip

[Ziphius]

Thanks for the quick reply. I am converting from an access database which has 100 people, with each person assigned anwhere from 1 to 20 characteristics (e.g.: tall, skinny, black, male, facial hair, tattoo, etc.). I can view these characteristics using a portal in the parent form, much like you demonstrated with your demo. However, let's say I need to find a person from my database that matches certain criteria (e.g.: find all persons with characteristics: short, heavy, male, moustache, Asian, etc.). If there was a way to view the child fields (characteristics) in a check box format, then I could perform a find and simply select the check box next to only those characteristics that I am interested in, giving me a subset of persons to pick from. Since the database is already created with the parent and child tables (one to many), I don't want to recreate this. I've attached an example of the database with the parent table (each individual) and portal showing the characteristics for each individual. Is there a way to convert the portal of characteristics to show as a check box of characteristics so when I do a find, I can simply select the characteristics I want? Also, the database is over 300 individuals with up to 10 characteristics per person, so not practical to start from scratch. Thanks.

Test.fp7.zip

[Ziphius]

efen,

that was exactly what I was looking for, thank you. Overlooked your post, just ignore my second post.

Mark

[Ziphius]

Efen,

Ok, that was almost what I wanted, at least it is the end result but I am still missing a step. In your database you had each persons attributes listed in a single record, essentially a one to one, and therefore converting to a check box is straight forward. However, my database has each attribute listed as a separate record for each individual, (e.g.: John:brown hair, John:tall, John:skinny; Mary:blond hair, Mary:brown eyes, Mary:Asian) essentially a one to many relationship. Is there a way I can merge the many attributes of each individual into one record (e.g.: John:brown hair tall skinny; Mary:brown eyes Asian) so that I can then convert to check boxes? I've attached a sample database to show what I mean.

Test.fp7.zip

[bcooney]

So you've inherited the structure that I've proposed. You're lucky, bcs it is the proper structure.

Do a find in the child table. Read about Find. Using New Request and Constrain, you will be able to find any combination.

If you want a checkbox interface, then you'll need to script the find. However, it will be limiting. If a user selects Blonde, Blue Eyes--do they want all blondes that have blue eyes, or all blondes AND all blue-eyed people (even brunettes).

[Ziphius]

I agree that if I were to structure a people database, I should separate attributes into their proper groupings (eye color, hair color, height, weight, etc.) but in actuality, my database is not people but manta rays, I used people just as an example. The manta ray attributes don't need to be grouped and there are about 15 attributes (missing cephalic fin, partial tail, shark bite, dorsal fungus, etc.). I currently have 300 distinct manta rays. When a manta ray is photographed in the field, I want to match it against the catalog to see if it is currently in the catalog or a new animal. Rather than comparing this individual to the entire catalog in random fashion, I would like to do narrow down my search by doing a find and checking off the attributes that apply to the new manta ray thereby pulling out those manta rays from the catalog that have the same attributes first in order to save time.

I want to do exactly what efan demonstrated where I can see the entire list of all 15 attributes and only the ones that apply to that manta ray are checked off. My problem is that in order to do that, for each individual manta ray, I need to merge all attributes (currently in repeating fields) into a single field so that I can convert to the check box option. I don't know how to get repeating fields into a single text box field. I'm sure there is a simple way; does anyone know how? Thanks.

[efen]

Does the attached help?

TYPE.zip

[efen]

Just reread the post and it mentions repeating fields - which my attached file does not use (nor does the OP sample posted?)

[Ziphius]

efan,

Disregard the repeating fields statement.

I adopted your database and applied it to my manta ray database. I went through each individual, one at a time, and ran the "transfer to check boxes" script. I then exported the Individual ID and checkbox field into Excel and all attributes were now merged into one record for each individual. I imported back into my database, adding a new merged attribute field while matching it to the Individual ID. Then I formatted the merged attribute field as a checkbox. This is what I was looking for. I can now do searches using the checkboxes for attributes. The export and import from Excel was probably unnecessary but I felt better doing it.

Now I just have to figure out how to publish this database to the web so that I can have people help me match new manta rays.

Thanks for your help, Mark