I'm having trouble with a layout that inserts certain lookedup information
for a client.

When a record is created lookedup info is auto inserted into a "Show All
Clients" portal and into certain fields on the layout. These fields are
always filled with info from the first client record. The layout also
displays a portal for lookedup info pertaining to another unrelated layout,
but there are no certain specific fields that are filled-in for this 2nd
portal.

If there are no records, none of the information is displayed for either of
these portals (even the unrelated portal) or in the specific fields that
hold the lookedup client info.

I had such a hellofa time figuring out how to even get relationship/lookedup
info to work that 1) I'm reluctant to screw with it ("if ain't broke, don't
fix it") and 2) I'm not really certain what I based the lookup info on. I
used an indexed field named "All" for both the client and the 2nd unrelated
portal, so I think this is what the lookups are based on.

The problem is I need to be able to have the specific fields on the layout
show the info for a specific client that is typed in manually (by client
name or street address), not just the 1st client that the info is
auto-entered for when a record is created. I've tried typing in the client
name and/or the address and doing a relookup, but that doesn't work.

I hope this all makes sense and as always, I would appreciate any help
anyone in the group can provide, just please be as specific as possible with
your solutions as I'm very new to FM/FMDev and this project has to be
completed by early morning, so I won't have time to try to figure out
exactly what you meant.

Thanks to all who take the time to help.
--
================================
Information Is Read By People... Not computers!
Knowledge. The Last American Bargain.
================================

JD wrote:

" Information is not knowledge, Knowledge is not Wisdom" Frank Zappa


JD,
I have a feeling your use of the term 'look-up' may not be what FM
defines as a lookup.

It is unclear what exactly is happening, and what you want to happen
when a new record is created.


Your 'show all clients portal, if you want a portal list of all clients,
usea _constant:;_constant rel. Make a calculation field (number
result) in both files, with a calc result 1, and index them. Create a
rel and portal...

I'm hoping you are using a Client_ID field, this is a unique serial
(auto enter C000001 increment 1) and should be thought MANDATORY, If
you are trying to use names for your rels; make the change.

Grab the client ID from the constant portal, and add it to your new
record (Field Client_ID), then you can use that to create rels to the
subsiduary tables of client info, which also contain Client_ID fields,
and use the rel(s) for lookups etc.


what file/purpose is the new record?

Chris Brown
Neurosurgery
University of Adelaide

Chris, I really don't understand about 90% of what you said, but I do
appreciate the effort.

What I did was create a rel from a table named "Call Console" to a table
named "Clients." I based this rel on an indexed field in both tables named
"All." I then added the fields that I wanted to be auto-populated with info
from "Clients" and defined them as lookups in the "Call Console" table.

Now when I create a record in the "Call Console" layout these fields are
auto-populated with the info specific to those fields and a complete list of
all Clients iis displayed in the "Show All Clients" portal AND the
appropriate info is also displayed in a 2nd portal that has nothing to do
with what I've said so far. I'm not sure if I defined this rel based on the
ClientID field in the Clients table or on the auto-generated "EventNum"
field in the "Call Console" table.

If no records have been input in the "Call Console" layout then nothing
shows up in the "Show All Clients" portal or the specific auto-populated
fields on the layout. Also, nothing iis displayed for the 2nd portal that is
also on the "Call Console" layout. This 2nd portal has nothing to do with
the "Show All Clients" portal and there are no specific fields on the layout
that are auto-populated with info pertaining to this unrelated portal.

Once a record is entered in the "Call Console" layout everything seems to
work as it should. The "Show All Clients" portal shows all clients that have
been entered from the "Clients" layout and the specific lookup fields are
auto-populated like they're supposed to be. The 2nd unrelated portal THEN
also displays the info that has been entered previously for it from its
appropriate layout.

The problem is, once a record is created the specific fields are
auto-populated with info for the first client that was entered. Thats fine,
but I need to be able to edit this info by typing in either the client name
or address into one of these auto-populated fields and have the ENTIRE
record update itsself to show info (in the specific fields setup for it)
that relate to whatever client name or address that was typed.

I guess what I'm asking here, is how do I setup the "Call Console" layout to
auto-populate the specific fields with info specific to THAT client name or
address? This info would be drawn from records that have been entered in the
Clients layout.

I hope this makes what I was trying to say clearer and that someone has a
fairly simple and understandable way that this can be done. I don't care
about whats already happening. As long as the "Show All Clients" portal and
the 2nd portal show what their supposed to, that's fine. But I need to have
those specific auto-populated fields update the record to show the info for
whatever client name or address is entered.

Sorry to be so long winded with this, but I don't know any other way to try
to make clear what's happening and what I need to happen.

"Chris Brown" <cbrown (AT) medicine (DOT) adelaide.edu.au> wrote

ok JD,

lets try this bit:

<<The problem is, once a record is created the specific fields are
auto-populated with info for the first client that was entered. Thats fine,
but I need to be able to edit this info by typing in either the client name
or address into one of these auto-populated fields and have the ENTIRE
record update itsself to show info (in the specific fields setup for it)
that relate to whatever client name or address that was typed.

I guess what I'm asking here, is how do I setup the "Call Console" layout to
auto-populate the specific fields with info specific to THAT client name or
address? This info would be drawn from records that have been entered in the
Clients layout.>>


you need to tell me what version of FM you are using.


You have files: Call Console, and Clients
Clients has Cliet_ID field, and client details such as address

What you are trying to do in Call Console, in a new (call) record is
type in part/all of either the client name or client address, and have
'info specific to THAT client name or address' enter into the Call
Console record.

Typing in a name or part of address is a method referred to as
'Clairvoyance' or type-ahead in FM speak. It is far easier in FM7 than
FM6, but if you are new to FM, it will take some application. We can
achieve either, but I need to know your FM version.

There may be simpler ways to achieve the same end, depending a bit on
how many clients you have. I use the clairvoyant approach in FM7 in
several solutions, for patient names, getting post codes from areas,
areas from post codes...

What you need to capture, in order to accurately pull in the target data
is the Client_ID. The name or address is purely an means of getting at
the right Client_ID. Consider this mantra.

regards

Chris










JD wrote:

Ok Chris,
well, as it says in the subject line of my posts, I'm using FM7 Developer.

I'm familar with clairvoyance/type ahead and I know that there is a plug-in
available to do this - thats not what I'm asking and I'm pretty sure what I
want to do - have specific fields of information auto-filled in when EITHER
OR a COMPLETE client name or client address is typed into one or the other
of these specific (name or address) fields.

The client name and client address field are just two of several fields that
need to be auto-populated once the above is done. I'm pretty sure this can
be done w/o any type of special plug-in - I just need to know how to setup
the relationship or lookups to accomplish this.

But I am running out of time. This has to be ready to go by 8:00 AM MDT.

I appreciate your efforts and I hope you can explain how to accomplish this
so I can stop worrying about it and get on with finishing and testing the
rest of the program before the deadline.

Thanks again.
"Chris Brown" <cbrown (AT) medicine (DOT) adelaide.edu.au> wrote

* JD <pmccarthy21 (AT) comcast (DOT) net>:
<snipped - because no one else does>

JD the one thing you have to remember about FM7 is that relationships will
only work if there are records present. You can have these wonderfully
complex relationships that go from A to B to C to D but if table B has no
records the relationship will fail.

loulou

Thanks loulou,

but I guess I'm just not making my point clear - I don't care about that.

All I want to do is be able to enter a client name or client address into
the field and have the record auto-populate several other fields BASED ON
the client name or client address (whichever one was entered)..

Thats all I want it do. I don't care what shows up if there are or aren't
records already present.

"Lou Lesko" <loulesko (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

I'm not totally sure I understand what you are trying to do, but I'll
give it a shot.

It sounds to me like you have a portal on which you want to always show
all clients.

You enter a new Call Console record, on which you want to only include
one of the clients from the "all clients" portal.

To do this, you need two relationships between call console and clients:

1) The "AllClients" relationship, which is a cartesian relationship (the
'X' link in the relationships dialog) between any two fields, which will
show all records from the clients table. That sounds basically like
what you already have.

2) A relationship from the specific client selected for the Call and the
client table itself. You can use the client's name as the basis for
this relationship, but that is dangerous since any change in the
client's name or spelling would break the relationship. As Chris was
saying, you would be better using a serialized record ID in the Client
table and adding that to each call to form this relationship.

Note that if you will truly be using only lookups to move client data to
the Call Console table, then basing the lookup relationship on client
name is fine because the only data link happens when the client data is
initially moved and never again. But if there isn't really a good
reason to have the client's info stored in the Call table itself, then
you should use a ClientID and not even bother with lookup fields.
Instead, you would just fill in the client ID into Call Console and
display on the layout the actual related fields from the Clients table
using the second relationship above.

To fill in your fields in Call Console using lookups: Change your
client-related lookup fields in Call Console to be based on my second
relationship above. Add a button to the first line of the Client portal
that sets the ClientID (or client name if you insist) in the Call table
to AllClients::ClientID (or AllClients::ClientName). This should now
trigger all your lookup fields to populate with the selected client from
the AllClients portal.



JD wrote:
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Howard Schlossberg (818) 883-2846
FM Pro Solutions Los Angeles, California

FileMaker 7 Certified Developer
Associate Member, FileMaker Solutions Alliance

"Howard Schlossberg" <howard (AT) antispahm (DOT) fmprosolutions.com> wrote
in message news:10nd31tomjmkdb8 (AT) corp (DOT) supernews.com..

I know that took a little time and thought, and you seem to have
a real good grasp of what it is I want to do.

the "X" link between about 4 or 5 diff fields.

reference rather than say, a name or address - Lynn (Allen) was
one of a few kind enough to point this out to me a few weeks ago
when I was attempting to make some rather stupid mistakes.

The records in the Call Console are one of the primary parts of
the program, essentially the whole reason for it. Records
entered here will be used to track calls by a dispatcher....to
look up specifics if there are questions later about how/when a
call was handled... and could even possibly be evidence in a
lawsuit should one arise over alleged mishandling.

The "Show All Clients" on the Call Console layout is not a
critical factor. It can be there or not. The idea here (which is
where the 2nd non-related portal comes in) is to be able to
enter in a client name or address in the appropriate field which
would cause other fields to auto-populate with related info such
as city, state, zip, alarm company name and phone #, etc., for
that SPECIFIC client.

The 2nd portal is the "Show All Units" which displays all
officers currently on duty, their availability for calls, and
shift start/end times, etc.

Ideally the user (dispatcher) would simply click on an available
unit in this portal, which would again cause several related
fields on the Call Console to auto-populate with that info, thus
effectively assigning this unit to that call.

I understand your explanation and I believe that is pretty much
what I'm looking for. I'm just not sure whether to get rid of
the "Show All Clients" portal and just work on the
auto-population part... keep it and attempt to implement your
suggestions...or what.

There are a few (good) reasons for this: 1) The db is very
complex with a multitude of interrelated and non-related layouts
which somehow seem to get screwed up whenever I attempt to
change something thats already working, 2) the boss is pushing
HARD for this program and gave a final deadline of THIS
MORNING, and 3) I'm very new (practically none) as far as
experience with FM, FM7, or FM7DEV in particular.

That said, the program works., even the extremely complex parts,
though I've essentially had to learn as I go with constant
pressure to get it done "yesterday." Keeping track of how
everything interrelates with around 197 layouts/tables can get
very confusing.

Because of this I'm reluctant to tamper with the damn thing and
it simply HAS TO be DONE by early tomorrow morning, so I guess
my question is this: If you (or anyone with a semi-simple
suggestion/solution) needed to perform the functions I just
outlined, exactly how would you go about it?

I realize this is a lot to ask and I really appreciate the
willingness of everyone to share their time and experterise on
something that isn't their "problem." so thank you all again.

I was apparently having a blonde day.

Having read the other posts this morning, I think you may be missing the
point a little bit. You say you want to type in :
EITHER > OR a COMPLETE client name or client address is typed into one
or the other

What happens when you have more than one client that has the same text
pattern, even COMPLETE field, you have typed in? How do you
gaurantee you have the client you want? Clairvoyance IS what you are
talking about here, as far as I can tell, and you don't need a plug in
(its 2 fields and a rel). What it will do is give you a progressively
shortening list, faster than tyting in the COMPLETE name or especially
the address, you then click/script GRAB the client (ID) by clicking on
a portal row, it doesn't really get any simpler.

Once you have teh client ID, looking up data from any number of other
files/tables that contain the ID, is simple.

The point is there is essentially NOTHING unique about a client name or
a client address, or necessarily even a name + address combination.
There IS uniqueness in a serail ID, or at least there sould be - or the
db design is fundamentally flawed.


regrds

Chris




JD wrote: