Is this Relationship Diagram Right?

[FMBeginner]

Hello,

Can anyone help me please? I am very new to FileMaker. In the first image is a sketch of what I am trying to achieve. In the second image is how I have tried to solve the many to many relationships in FileMaker. As there are a couple of repeated table occurrences I feel a bit nervous that I have done it incorrectly. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you. 

[FMBeginner]

To explain further:

A category needs to be able to have many documents, and/or products and/or contacts. It will always have at the very least, either one document, product or contact.

eg: category record "Utilities" might have many contacts, many documents but no products. 

A document won't always have a contact but it will always have at least one category, if not more. 

A product might have a number of documents but not necessarily. It will ALWAYS have at least one category, possibly more. It won't ever have a Contact.

 

 

 

 

 

[bruceR]

At least show a real, correct graph with the actual keys you are using.

That graph is impossible.

E.g. show PK_product connected to line items fk_product.

Edited August 22, 2015 by BruceR

[FMBeginner]

Thank you Bruce,

I do see I completely missed that out. Like I said, I'm new to this. I'll modify and see if things improve.

 

[FMBeginner]

OK so thanks to Bruce kindly pointing out I was making no sense, I've revised things a bit and I really hope now that I'm at least beginning to create a correct Relationships Diagram.

The image shows the Relationship Diagram. Please can anyone tell me if I'm even close to creating something that is correct? 

 

This is how I'd like CATEGORIES to relate to DOCUMENTS, CONTACTS and PRODUCTS:

A CATEGORY will always have either a PRODUCT, a CONTACT or a DOCUMENT. It might have more than one, but not always. It won't always have all three.

A PRODUCT will always have one to many DOCUMENTS. As DOCUMENTS will always be categorised through the CATS/DOCS table, any DOCUMENT linked to a PRODUCT, takes its CATEGORIES with it.

Not all DOCUMENTS have a PRODUCT.

DOCUMENTS will always have either one PRODUCT, or one CONTACT, and one to many CATEGORIES.

CONTACTS might have one to many DOCUMENTS but not always. They will always have one to many CATEGORIES. Therefore so long as all CONTACTS can have one to many CATEGORIES, then DOCUMENTS relating to CONTACTS will gain categories through the CONS/CATS table. 

For DOCUMENTS that do not link to a CONTACT, will the CATS/DOCS table work?

 

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 22, 2015 by FMBeginner

[Wim Decorte]

I don't think this makes a lot of sense...  The filemaker graph is not an ERD tool and I think you're trying to make it so.

The problem with your FM graph is that every thing is related to everything and that should not be the case.

There are many graph management techniques out there.  One of the easiest ones to understand is A/B, read up on it here: http://www.kevinfrank.com/anchor-buoy.html

You definitely need to build an ERD for your solution, but the graph is not the place to do it.  The graph is all about context and where you are and what you can touch from where you are.

[bcooney]

It would be helpful to give us a plain english "user story." How about some examples of Categories?

Also, you may wish to use one table for "contact_mechanisms" with a id_type (phone, postal, electronic), rather than a separate table for each type.

[FMBeginner]

Thanks Wim and bcooney for the pointers. I'll read up at the link posted and keep learning...