Background.  A record in a table is related by a field to a field in another table.  To select the related record, I use a dropdown box that shows all the relevant field values that can be selected from.  The issue is, if the desired value is not there, you want the user to be able to enter a new value, and then automatically create a record for that new value in the related table.

 

I was having trouble with this issue previously, and decided to take another look at it.  I came across the following solution, which is worth reposting here.

 

http://forums.filemaker.com/posts/d11c45f9f8

 

Here's the relevant section.

 

 

Now, for whatever reason, this doesn't work for me unless I add a "Commit Record" at the very top of the suggested script, and then it works like a charm! 

 

My previous solution was to force the user to press a "plus" button next to the dropdown to add a new record (via a popover).  I think this approach is cleaner.

 

 

I'm not a big fan of dropdowns, especially when related values are used. Rather than a dropdown, I use a popover with a portal in it. This provides much more flexibility (ie I can provide a plus button to add a new value if needed). I use this particularly to select a person from a staff list, in which case I provide a filter field displayed as check boxes with preselected departments (so only staff members of the selected departments are displayed, but still allowing the user to change that selection and select someone from a diff dept.)

And I can create some eye candy around the popover to make it look really nice.