A Filtered Portal of a Filtered Portal?

[K P]

Hi all:

I have what I suspect is a very easy problem to solve...At least, I hope. I've spent days staring at these forums, and none of the offered solutions really address my situation -- at least, not in a way that my newbie mind immediately grasps...

I have a Table of Books. For now, let's just say this table has four fields: BookID (serial number), BookTitle (text), ExplodedBookTitle (calculated value that basically explodes each word in the title), and BookInfo (text).

I also have a Table of Licenses. Let's just say this table has the fields: LicenseID, BookID.

These tables are related through the BookID, so that when I create a new License, I assign a Book to that record. I've set up my License Layout with a button "Select Book" where the user is taken to a new layout to find and select the appropriate book and then return to the License layout.

Now, I've set up a third table, BookSearch, with two global fields: BookTitleSearch and BooktitleSelect. This table is related to the Books Table as: Books::ExplodedBookTitle >= BookSearch::BookTitleSearch & Books::ExplodedBookTitle =< BookSearch::BookTitleSearch. So on the BookSearch Layout, BookTitleSearch is a "search field", and the Books portal below is filtered accordingly.

This is great and the behavior I want.

I'm now trying to set up an additional Books portal (that is only one row) where I can view more details on whatever book I select from that filtered portal, side by side.

Right now, I have it rigged up so on the filtered portal on the left, each row is a button, and that button is scripted to (1) push a BookID to a global field (BookTitleSelect), (2) set the current portal row as a variable, (3) go to object "DetailedView" (my name for that right-hand portal), and (4) go to the equivalent portal row. The "DetailedView" portal contains a button that sends the user back to the License layout and sets the License BookID field as the global field BookTitleSelect.

Here's the problem:

In order to use the go to portal row function, the one-rowed portal on the right HAS to have a scrollbar. Which means...the user can accidentally misclick and interact with that scrollbar, even if it's set up to blend in with the background. So a means to completely and utterly block that scrollbar would be a solution. (Using other objects like containers or buttons doesn't seem to block that functionality, even when those objects are brought to the front.)

If that's not possible, I'll need a way to set up the "Details" portal as a filter of the filtered portal on the left...and accomplishing that is a little outside my depth of knowledge in Filemaker. I know, logically, I need to find all book titles where globalfield BookTitleSelect = BookID...but I don't know quite how to accomplish that. Any insight would be appreciated!

[comment]

You could establish another relationship matching the global field (in which table is it?) to BookID in the Books table. Then just place the related fields on the layout (no portal required).

This part doesn't quite make sense, though:

I need to find all book titles where globalfield BookTitleSelect = BookID

Isn't BookID unique in the Books table?

[K P]

Yes...all the BookIDs ARE unique. I probably worded it funny, but I was just trying to describe what I imagined the logic was behind the second filter, so to speak.

Moot point anyhow -- your suggestion worked when I created a new TO of the Books Table made the relation you suggested. I don't know why I was getting hung up on using a portal...

Many thanks!