successive pull downs with relationships?

[Justin Brandt]

okay, this might be long and drawn out, but it's hard to explain in writing... I think my problem can be solved with relationships, so here goes...

I have a simple database that keeps track of (or will keep track of!) the different softwares (50 or so) installed on various computers in my group (19 computers). I have a few different tables, Computer_Table (computer name, operating system, computer location, owner, etc...), Software_Table (product name, version, license info, etc...), and Master_Table (Computer name, software installed, etc...) which I hope will be able to combine the two others.

Software_Table:

[Company] | [Product] | [Version]

Adobe | Illustrator | CS4

Adobe | Illustrator | CS5

Adobe | Photoshop | CS5

ESRI | ArcGIS | 9.0

ESRI | ArcGIS | 10.0

Computer_Table:

[computer name] | [O.S.] | [Location]

Justin laptop | WinXP | suite 4004b

Dave workstation | WinXP | suite 4004a

All I really want to be able to do is create a series of pull down menus where I can choose which computer and which softwares are installed. I know how simple pull down menus work, but I want to be able to limit the lists shown for each successive pull down.

Example, I create "Master_Table" with the fields:

Master_Table

[Computer] [Company] [Product] [Version]

[Computer] That's easy - just create a value list based on the values in Computer_Table - [computer name].

[Company] Also easy, just another value list based on Software_Table - [company]

[Product] But if I choose "Adobe" in the [Company] pull down, I only want the values in [product] to show the entries that match that field (i.e. Illustrator and Photoshop)

[Version] The same here, I only want the specific versions of whatever I chose previously to show up in this pull down (i.e. if I choose "Illustrator" I should only see CS4 and CS5).

I know I could just create a single table with ALL these fields together, but I'm hoping that using a series of pull down menus like I describe will save me some time long run.

I assume this can be done with relationships, but I guess I just can't wrap my brain around how to do it. Can anyone help?

Thanks!

[comment]

Search the forums for "conditional value list".

[Justin Brandt]

Search the forums for "conditional value list".

I knew I was over complicating it. I wasn't sure of the verbage to search for.

thanks!!

[Justin Brandt]

I've been looking at your CONDBASIC.fp7 file, and I'm confused why there seem to be two sets of Country values. One has 18 entries which appears to be the main set of values used in the drop downs, but the COUNTRIES layout has 8 entries. What is that for?

Thanks!

[comment]

I've been looking at your CONDBASIC.fp7 file

A link would be helpful (I have >18k posts...).

[Justin Brandt]

A link would be helpful (I have >18k posts...).

oops, sorry, it wasn't "your" fp7 file (call it a brain fart), but this is what I was referring to. (see post #2)

http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/47297-conditional-value-list-basics/

[comment]

I can see how it can be confusing. There is a table of COUNTRIES. It should be properly named "Provinces". There are 8 provinces you can choose from.

The other table (CONDBASIC) is where you make your choices. It has 18 records, and for each of these a province has been chosen - after narrowing down the choices by selecting the country first.

[Justin Brandt]

Ahh! that makes more sense...

cheers!