drop down menu value list based on previous selection in other field

[mathac]

New to fm,

I have table of manufacturers with,manufacturer A, B, C, D, etc.

Other tables for each manufacturer with items specific to each manufacturer. Let's say at least 2 manufacturers named A & B for simplicity. Each item has two names, English & Chinese, thus 2 fields.

I need to create a layout with field manufacturer drop down menu where selection of A will bring up only items from manufacturer A in next field items with both the English and Chinese. If B is selected than only items from B should display in field items. Please help with detailed info for a newbie. The only thing I know how to do is create the drop down menu.

[bcooney]

Welcome to the Forums!

You are asking, basically, how to do a conditional value list. There are several examples on the forum, use Search to find them.

However, I have a couple of questions. Can an Item be manufactured by more than one Manufacturer? If so, you need a join table btw Items and Manuf. This table would have a record for each combo of Manf and Item.

Then, on a Manufacturer form view layout, you could display a portal to the join table that shows all the Items available from that Manf. Each item can have two fields for a name (English, Chinese). However, if you think this multi-name req might expand, you might consider a child table off of Items to store this data (ItemID, LanguageID, Name). You can then use List( ) to "bring up" these names into a display calc field in Items.

[mathac]

thanks for your reply. I did try a joining table with all information for all companies and their respective items. For some reason I couldn't get it to work. After reading your reply I tried it again. It works! Perhaps there was a problem with a relationship. To answer your question, I use different companies depending on the availability of their products and pricing.

Next problem, I am creating a final product from a list of single ingredients chosen from a drop down menu. Occasionally, one company will not carry what I need and I need to get it from a different company. Each ingredient has a different price per gram used. The fields are company and item. I think I need to number them, 1, 2, etc. I can't the field item2 to relate only to company2. company2 works. Any ideas. It's probably a relaionship problem again?

Michele