Portal to display parent and child data together?

[Courtney]

I have an existing parent table called "Timesheet" and a child table called "Task". Data in the Timesheet table includes things like the employee's ID, the date of the work, the client, and the project. Data in the Task table includes the specific task performed, the rate we bill for that task, and the time logged on that task. Users must create one Timesheet record for each project each day.  This data is currently displayed on a layout based on the Timesheet table, with a portal to show the related Task records.

Management would like me to see about a different layout which would allow users to enter all of one day on a single layout.  I thought that a self-join of the Timesheet table based on Employee ID and Date would be the starting point for this, but I'm not succeeding in getting all the data to appear correctly.

I'd like to end up with the Timesheet::Employee ID and Timesheet::Date fields appearing on the main layout, and then have portal rows looking something like this:

Timesheet::Project Code -- Timesheet::Budget Line Item -- Task::Task Description -- Task::Notes -- Task::Hours Worked

Is this even going to work? Any suggestions or pointing in the right direction?

Thanks,

~Courtney

[eos]

Users must create one Timesheet record for each project each day.

​Every user, past and present, for each project, current and concluded … ? 

What I mean is: can you identify what current users are associated with which active projects? If so, you could automate the creation of the required timesheet entries. (If their creation is mandatory, why not let the computer do the work?) 

Management would like me to see about a different layout which would allow users to enter all of one day on a single layout.

​Use a layout based on the Employees table? Add a global field for the date, and create a relationship into the Timesheet table based on employeeID and date.

Allow selection of one of the displayed Timesheet entries to set a global field that drives a relationship into the Task table to allow entry of these records.

Timesheet::Project Code -- Timesheet::Budget Line Item -- Task::Task Description -- Task::Notes -- Task::Hours Worked

Is this even going to work?

​This works if the portal is a Tasks portal (each Task = 1 timesheet “parent”), but not if the portal is based on a Timesheet TO (1 timesheet --< many task “children”).

In the above described setup, if a date is entered, but no Timesheet record selected, you could calculate the IDs of all Timesheet records of that date and use these to see all related Task entries; that portal could be made to look like your example.

[Courtney]

​Every user, past and present, for each project, current and concluded … ? 

What I mean is: can you identify what current users are associated with which active projects? If so, you could automate the creation of the required timesheet entries. (If their creation is mandatory, why not let the computer do the work?) 

​Use a layout based on the Employees table? Add a global field for the date, and create a relationship into the Timesheet table based on employeeID and date.

Allow selection of one of the displayed Timesheet entries to set a global field that drives a relationship into the Task table to allow entry of these records.

​This works if the portal is a Tasks portal (each Task = 1 timesheet “parent”), but not if the portal is based on a Timesheet TO (1 timesheet --< many task “children”).

In the above described setup, if a date is entered, but no Timesheet record selected, you could calculate the IDs of all Timesheet records of that date and use these to see all related Task entries; that portal could be made to look like your example.

​Ah! Oops - they create one timesheet record for each project they work on that day, not for every project ever. :-D

Unfortunately, it's not predictable enough to have the system create the needed records for them.

I will fiddle with your other suggestions. Thank you.

[eos]

Unfortunately, it's not predictable enough to have the system create the needed records for them.

​Then present them with a selection of all active projects, let them check the appropriate ones, then create the Timesheet entries based on that selection. (And maybe remember the selection from the previous occasion as suggested new selection.)

Making a few clicks in a (reasonably pre-slimmed down) list beats creating these records “by hand”.