hello one and all,

i would like to setup a value list that is based on a condition. like i
don't want all of the company names in the value list, i want the value
list to be a subset of company names.

how can i do this gracefully in filemaker v10? thanx in advance.

lucas

In article <8e62m.61074$qa.29179 (AT) bignews4 (DOT) bellsouth.net>,
lucas <slukacs (AT) bellsouth (DOT) net> wrote:

Set up a relationship between a Table Occurrence of the table that holds
the company names, and another table. Establish a global field in the
second table, that will hold the condition for the filtered value list.
Establish the relationship between that global field and the field in
the Company table that contains the condition to be met.

Define the value list on the basis of that table occurrence of the
Company table, showing values only from that relationship.

Set up a script or some other method of setting the global field to hold
the value desired.

forgive me, i am somewhat new to filemaker, can you explain in more
detail? below...

Bill wrote:
i am not sure exactly how or where to setup the condition for the
filtered value. is the condition under a calculation field in the
Company table or somehow in the second table? and then how do you
connect these two relationships between the two Table Occurrences?

thanx in advance, sometimes i am slow to see, please forgive. lucas

In article <yHP2m.17745$he4.16061 (AT) bignews3 (DOT) bellsouth.net>,
lucas <slukacs (AT) bellsouth (DOT) net> wrote:

Presumably you have already identified some characteristic of the
Companies that would be the basis for filtering. That characteristic
needs to be in a field for each record of the Company table. Then you
would insert the same characteristic into the global field to make the
relationship.

The relationship would look like this:

A::GlobalField = Company::Characteristic

In article <8e62m.61074$qa.29179 (AT) bignews4 (DOT) bellsouth.net>, lucas
<slukacs (AT) bellsouth (DOT) net> wrote:
You haven't given quite enough information for a fully correct answer, but
let's pretend that you want to narrow the Company names down by letting the
user first choose the Suburb.

Somewhere in your database system you will need a table that contains the
Company and its Suburb within the same record, and a separate record for
each possible combination of Company and Suburb - this means if a Company
has offices in two suburbs you will need two records.

For example, using local supermakets the table might have data like this
(this table can contain other fields and data too):

Company_Table
Company_Suburb Company_Company
Glenfield Foodtown
Takapuna Foodtown
Glenfield Countdown
Milford New World
Milford Woolworths
Northcote Woolworths
Albany New World
Albany Pak 'n' Save
etc.

Now in the main table where the data entry is being done you will need two
fields:

DataEntry_Table
Suburb Text field
Company Text field


On the DataEntry_Table's layout the Suburb field could simply be typed into,
but to avoid problems due to data entry typos it is best to format this
field as a pop-up menu / pop-up list using a normal value list defined to
get its "values from field" using the Company_Table::Company_Suburb field.
e.g.
vl_Suburbs Values from Company_Table
Field Company_Suburb

Next you will need to define a new Relationship which links the
DataEntry_Table to the Company_Table using the two Suburb fields to make the
link.
e.g.
rel_Suburbs Match records in DataEntry_Table
to records in Company_Table
when Suburb = Company_Table::Suburb

Now you can create a second value list that will be used to retrieve the
Company names from the Company_Table table, but only those with the matching
Suburb by using the above relationship.
e.g.
vl_Companies Values from Company_Table
Related values only
Field rel_Suburbs::Company_Company

On the DataEntry_Table's layout the Company field can now be formatted as a
pop-up menu / pop-up list using this value list.


Now on the DataEntry_Table's layout when users click on the Suburb field
they will get a pop-up menu of all the possible suburb names from the
Company_Table.
i.e.
Albany
Glenfield
Milford
Northcote
Takapuna

After choosing one of these, the user can then click on the Company field to
get a pop-up menu of only the companies within the choosen suburb.
ie.
If they choose "Glenfield" as the suburb then the Company pop-up menu
will display just:
Countdown
Foodtown


A disadvantage with this "filtered values" (also called heirachical menus)
is that a user must choose a Suburb first, otherwise the the Company pop-up
menu will be empty.

Hopefully that makes sense.


Helpful Harry )