Using a custom list for tags

[Julie Sedlis]

I'm building a contact list and want to have a field that shows ONLY selected values from a list but allows me to select more than one value. I imagine there's a simple solution but I'm just not getting it. I want something akin to the list of tags on a blog post shown at the bottom of each record.

Eventually I want to be able to look up all the tags for a given value in another field. For example, look up all the tags associated with records from one organization (another defined list)

If this helps, it's for fundraising. I want the tags to correspond to what various funders give to (education, arts, etc.) so I can search which foundations give operating support for educational programs and when and if I've been in touch with them. I know there are programs that do that specifically but I want more control over fields and FM is considerably cheaper.

[bcooney]

Do you have a record of each donation? Would it make sense to "classify" each donation with your tag value? If so, I would have table of tags (id and value), and use this for a value list. The donation record would have a tagID.

[Julie Sedlis]

It's not donation based. I'm compiling contacts that include donors, networking contacts, project partners - and I want to be able to give them tags that correspond to whatever I might need to look up. For instance, who do I know in Boston that is interested in arts and education? I want to put arts and education in a list from which I can choose multiple options, but the list is going to be very long and I don't want it displayed on the page.

[dansmith65]

As bcooney described it, you would only be able to have one tag per record (contacts, in your case). To be able to have multiple tags you would need an additional table that has two fields: tagID, contactID. Then, on your contacts layout you would need a portal for this new table. The portal should have a single field in it: tagID, which is defined as a pop-up menu using the values from a value list which get's it's contents from your tags table.

That was a very condensed description - if you need help implementing it, let us know.