hi there. in my last post i was trying to creat a shell that will find info in another database. it didn't really work to well. so i will try to explain what i want to do. i have a program that is going to add/find/view information. i am able to add records and find them but i want them to come back in a portal. the problem is it comes back in different records. i want them to come back in one record just on different lines in the portal. i have the main program creating a key(date and time created) this key is related to the housing program. the key in the housing program is just a text field. i need to create separate records in the housing program (it's a simple schedule program. install date, hour of day, installer name). so when some wants to schedule and install you just find the time of day and the day of the week and it will give you all the installers that are free for 9am on mondays... for example. this just really needs to be simple.

thank you for the help.

peter

I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to do, but rows in a portal are by definition different records. I would never use the words "scheduling" and "simple"in the same sentence when talking about FM. Scheduling solutions in FM are always complex. If you want to see installer who are available at a given date and time, you will probably have to give each installer a compound, multi-key. Compound in Date & Time and with one entry for each possible availability. When an installer is scheduled, you would remove the appropriate date(s) and time(s) from his multi-key so that he would not longer appear in the "available" portal for that selected date and time. This multi-key will need to be maintained to flush out dates older than today and add dates/times in the future.

-bd