Need a little guidance creating a value list by way of a portal

[Rich S]

Greets all:

 

Brain hernia of the month: What I'm trying to do is create a value list from chosen names in a portal so I can use it in a calculation later for a text field and I'm stuck. (Please refer to the attached.)

 

I have a table connection between RESUME and CONTACT; of concern in the CONTACT table are the fields, Name and ShowInResume. The portal (in RESUME)  has the filter enabled so it only shows the names within it that have the checkbox in ShowInResume ticked (with an "x"). So far, so good.

 

What I want to do is place another checkbox to the left of each name so the user can choose which name(s) he or she wants to use as a reference in a résumé. So, say the user ticks the proposed checkbox for Johnson and Greene; their names will used later in a calculation (text) field so the names will appear in a résumé.

 

So, here's where I'm stuck:

 

1. For the proposed checkbox field (we'll call it Name_chkbx), which table should it be in?

2. With the Name_chkbx checkboxes ticked, what calculation would I use to gather the names and then list them in alphabetical order?

 

I imagine that the List command (in a calc) will be used toward the end of the process to list the names, correct?

 

As usual, I tend to find _the_ most complicated, convoluted way of doing things (Hey, everybody has a skill) so if there's a simple way of accomplishing this I'm all for it!

 

TIA for your replies.

Rich

[eos]

Well, I would recommend to …

 

Create a join table between Resume and Contacts (say, ContactsInResume); on the resumé table, show a Cartesian picker portal to Contacts.

 

Clicking a name will actually create/delete a record in ContactsInResume (no checkbox). Use FilterValues and List() to Conditionally Format the selected contacts in the picker portal (still none!  ).

 

Add a TO of Contacts “behind” the join table, sort that TO alphabetically, and collect the names from it with List ( Contacts_forResume::cFullName ), as in

 

Resume >-x-< Contacts (picker), and

Resume --< ContactsInResume >-- Contacts_forResume (collector)