RELATED TABLES It used to be so easy!

[neldom]

For smart people out there: Is there any reason why it used to be so easy to relate tables and not being at risk of going crazy if by mistake you touch the wrong path? All of my fields went "". Thank God for back ups' cause I spent hours trying to figure out how or what I did to years of work!.

I suspect filemaker pro drew a line from FM7 on. I love FM, but it looks like certain things don't make sense to me, i.e you grab 3 related files working smoothly, just terrific relationships (HEY, all done by me!), then you are so happy that decision is made to use the same files with a different name and in another folder.... what a nightmare!.. tough I managed to make them work sometimes, it takes a long effort to see why this happens( don't laugh please!). Scripts( those that used to be called "external') are primarily affected, and then when begin to do changes a possible chain reaction occurs off horrific consequences. I am sure is me, that is why this is for smarter people than me to help me. Remember smart people don't make fun of others of inferior minds!. I have to add that among other things, scripts are fine in the original files but when under other names, same scripts are with missing information or unknown scripts..... just not as fun as it used to be!. Something is wrong and this post is probably too long. Thanks to anyone that can share some thoughts!.

[bcooney]

Yes, FM6>FM7 was a huge change. I feel that many of the problems that you describe are due to the fact that you still have multiple FM files, rather than one file with many tables. I think that you'll find consolidating your solution will reduce its complexity.

A key concept in FM that many do not understand is "context." Context simply put is where you are in the relationship graph, and can you see what you need from where you are. , for example, indicates that from your current context (as determined by the table occurrence of the current layout), you cannot see the field that you have placed on the layout. You need a relationship to that field.