Question

Related Drop Down Menus is Filemaker Pro

Asked by: Kensington

I have  four tables: Products, Rooms, Quote and Line Items.

The products have a field called Category (TV, Amplifier, Speaker, DVD Player).

On the quote, I would like to have a portal of line items which I can select products. As there are around 2,000 products in the product having all of these in the drop down is not practical. So, instead what I would like to do is have a drop down called Category. This would list all the categories in the products table. Once a category is selected, the next field would then contain all the products within that category.
e.g if I select the Category DVD Player, then the Product Name field would then have a drop down list containing: SOny ABC123, Onkyo 456, Denon 789 etc.

A second problem:
The Rooms Database contains all the rooms for the current quote (Kitchen, Study, Bedroom). I also want a drop down list of rooms in the line items, so I can select which room this applies to. However, I only want the list to contain the Rooms associated with this project.

The rooms database has a QUote_ID field, so it is easy to determine which rooms are related to this qiote. How do I make only a related selection?

How do I can I achieve all of this?

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Asked On
2009-08-11 at 06:58:57ID24643102
Tags

Filemaker Pro

,

Relational Database

,

FMP

,

Fields

Topic

FileMaker Pro Database

Participating Experts
2
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125
Comments
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Answers

 

by: KensingtonPosted on 2009-08-11 at 07:40:47ID: 25069613

I have made some progress with this. If I go to the Products Layout (for individual product records) I can select a category and then select a product from within that Category. This is exactly as I wanted. The only problem is it does not work from within a Portal. If I change the category, the Product Names do not change, unless I go to a different quote and then back again. It seems to have a refresh issue with the drop down menus.

 

by: North2AlaskaPosted on 2009-08-11 at 08:26:21ID: 25070142

I would use two fields, one for category and the other for product.   I sent an example to someone else that might help you.  See http://www.experts-exchange.com/Apple/Software/Filemaker_Pro/Q_24611581.html for the details

 

by: KensingtonPosted on 2009-08-11 at 09:11:01ID: 25070609

I had seen this already. I am using two fields. Whilst it works fine on the Products Layout, if I put this into a portal within another page does not. I have found if you go off the main record and back again, it does indeed work. For some reason the page needs refreshing to get the drop down list to update to the new list. I suppose I will just put a button in to refresh. It's just a bit messy.

Any other suggestions are most welcome.

 

by: lesouefPosted on 2009-08-11 at 09:41:50ID: 25070925

your need another list using the same fields, but which takes the portal relationship into account.

 

by: KensingtonPosted on 2009-08-11 at 13:39:05ID: 25073169

I do not follow you. Please explain. How would this help with the refresh? It does work but when you select the first drop down you have to click out of the portal before the second drop down updates.

 

by: lesouefPosted on 2009-08-11 at 14:48:51ID: 25073834

I'd like to see the file, easier... the problem of dropdowns and menu list is that when you release the choice, the record is not committed as tabbing out of a normal field would do. if you use version 10, you can use a "commit" when field value is changed.
but I still prefer to see your pb as I am not 100% sure I got it.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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