Can anyone advise the best way to do this?

#11

You're welcome; it's my pleasure! You do some pretty awesome write-ups, too!

"Bill" <bbcollins (AT) fake (DOT) net> wrote

Quote:

In article <6didnb5zmYzVSdvYnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d (AT) comcast (DOT) com>,
"Bill Marriott" <wjm (AT) wjm (DOT) org> wrote:

How can I expand on this so that I can enter new musicians with new
instruments (and potentially add new instruments to old musicians, if
they
learn them)? I think I'm stuck on how to allow the portal to accept
edits.

Answer: Value lists.

I really appreciate your whole description in this thread.

Thanks,
Bill Collins

#12

These writeups are excellent - my database is in great shape.

On 2006-10-30 10:21:39 -0500, "Bill Marriott" <wjm (AT) wjm (DOT) org> said:

Quote:

10b) Demonstrate you can make a report that shows a list, by
instrument, the musicians who play that instrument.
....
Method Two:
- Go to the Instruments table
- Add a new calculation field, RelatedMusicians (text result) with the formula:

Substitute ( List ( Musicians::Musician ); "¶"; ", ")

Add this field to the layout based on Instruments. You will see for
each instrument a list of the musicians separated by commas.

Is there a way to tack this report on to another report (a three-column
directory layout with mergefields), so that it would start where the
directory portion ended? I thought that the calculation field would
work best, since I could use it in another mergefield, but my FileMaker
choked ("function not found") on the List() function.

#13

Regarding List(), You need the current version, FileMaker Pro 8.5... a $50
upgrade from 8, I believe.

You can have two reports that "print" together, but the second report would
start on a new page.

OR....

As you surmised, the calculation will work best for your needs. The List()
function would actually let you merge the two reports together. In
Instruments you would combine the instrument name and the musicians list
into a single calculated field, e.g.:

FormattedRelatedMusicians (text) =

TextStyleAdd ( Instrument & ": "; Bold)
& RelatedMusicians & "¶"

Then put all those together neatly with a global calc:

List ( AllInstruments::FormattedRelatedMusicians )

Where AllInstruments is a second table occurrence of Instruments, related to
Instruments via the relationship Instruments::ID x AllInstruments::ID. (The
"x" symbol means, all records.) Yes, it's a tricky concept.

You could then drop this field --- which will contain ALL the instruments
and musicians who play them in one blob -- into a trailing grand summary
part, so it prints on the same page as the directory.

Download the free trial of FileMaker 8.5 to play with these until your order
arrives

"zimbabwhat" <zimbabwhat (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

These writeups are excellent - my database is in great shape.

Is there a way to tack this report on to another report (a three-column
directory layout with mergefields), so that it would start where the
directory portion ended? I thought that the calculation field would work
best, since I could use it in another mergefield, but my FileMaker choked
("function not found") on the List() function.

#14

On 2006-10-30 23:41:24 -0500, "Bill Marriott" <wjm (AT) wjm (DOT) org> said:

Quote:

You'll see that there is a "blank" popup menu at the end of every
portal in the system. By clicking this menu, you will see all the
instruments. As you choose an instrument, another blank row is added.

I'm so close! I've tried everything I can think of, but I'm not able to
get the "blank" popup menu to do anything when I click it. It would be
ideal if I could click this blank popup menu to add a new record in
MusiciansInstruments - a new instrument that the musician plays. Any
idea where I may have gone wrong?

Everything else is working great - I really appreciate all the help.

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Can anyone advise the best way to do this?

comp.databases.filemaker comp.databases.filemaker

Re: Can anyone advise the best way to do this? - 10-31-2006 , 10:14 AM

Re: Can anyone advise the best way to do this? - 10-31-2006 , 02:59 PM

Re: Can anyone advise the best way to do this? - 10-31-2006 , 03:44 PM

Re: Can anyone advise the best way to do this? - 11-03-2006 , 02:52 PM