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After you click Next, the final window tells you that you’re finished. FileMaker creates a new Count field and at the end of this process, you’ll see a Subsummary part (you’ll learn how to create them manually on Summary Fields) based on the options you just chose. The summary field counts each record in the sorted category group you selected above and displays a count of records for each group. After you click Next, the Specify Grand Totals window appears.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll appreciate how much easier it was to make selections in an assistant. However, you need to format your fields and generally beautify the layout so that it matches the rest of your database. Besides being useful for displaying data on layouts, merge fields are often used for things like form letters, labels, or envelopes.

When this option is turned on, FileMaker just plops the field down at the bottom of your layout and, if necessary, increases the Body part to accommodate the new field. Since developers invest a lot of time making layouts look just so, you’ll usually work with this option turned off. That means you have to place any newly created fields on your layout manually.

thoughts on “Virtual List Simplified”

Double-click the new field to show the Specify Field dialog box. Select the field you want, turn off the Create label option, and then change the field’s label. The arrow points to the Field tool, and a tooltip identifies the tool and adds a usage tip.

Editing Records Through a Portal

It comes closer than anything else I have read…however I’d like another image added – the one for a “Looped” relationship as described in the text. I think I make this mistake myself, but I’d like to see what a “Bad” relationship graph looks like! I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. I will try them both out and any other suggestions that come in.

In that case, there would be a gap in the serial numbers, because the numbers assigned to deleted records are never reused. The next value is a running tally of where you are in the database. When you first set up an auto-enter serial number field, the next value is always “1” unless you change it. If you’re importing data from another source, you should find the highest serial number in the imported data, and then set your field’s “next value” to one number higher than the imported data. And while the most common “increment by” value is 1, you can make the numbers increase by any other number you choose instead. You can use the field tool to create a field, and then use the Specify Field window to choose the field you want.

Then clicking anywhere on the layout would trigger the script to hide the menu. I first tried using an existing Global field from the same base table for this but I found out that changing a global and clicking on the layout does not fire the onRecordCommit trigger. Using this technique you could in fact end up building some rather cool menu and navigation systems. In FileMaker 12 layouts now have a right edge, so you can use the area outside of the layout for construction of your menu tab controls. When satisfied with them, simply drag them onto the layout wherever you want them to go.

But in the window on the right, you can see that the Payment table doesn’t have any records yet. Keep your screen set up like this for the next tutorials, so you can watch how and when related records are created, edited, and deleted. This is also a good troubleshooting tip when something’s wrong with a relationship and you’re trying to figure out how to fix it. You’ll do that later—from the Lease Agreement layout.

Remember that everything not fully enclosed in the tab control is considered outside of it. Generate a browse mode report, with different levels of sub-summarization depending on category . You can do some of the heavy lifting in the virtual list table after the data has been parsed… https://hookupgenius.com/buddygays-review/ as opposed to doing all the work prior to parsing the data. The Fast Summaries method requires that a “year” field be defined in the sales table because it uses it as a GetSummary break field. Multi-Finds, on the other hand, don’t use GetSummary and so do not require break fields.

Understanding the Elements of a Relationship

It is still in the tab but because the tab is smaller, it is inaccessible. The field is completely enclosed in the tab control – that is to say no edge of the field lies outside of the tab boundary. And finally, if you want to see a whole bunch of other virtual list reports check out Virtual List Reporting, part 1 and part 2.

Working with related data in portals

Because buttons (as you’ll learn on Buttons) are so useful, you can add them to a portal row, too. If you have a portal with a tall row height and you’ve arranged fields two high in that first row, you could draw a horizontal line in the portal to help organize the data. But while you’re learning about portals and relationships, it’s very helpful to display the key field so you can see how portals work. You could dress this layout up any way you want to. For instance, you might turn it into a list layout so you can report on your payments.

You can drag objects, such as a related field, onto the first row of an existing portal to add it to the portal. The result of a portal filter calculation would be the same as the result in a calculation field in the related table. Add the two fields of the Salesperson table to the Salesperson layout. Suppose a layout uses a portal to display all sales by each salesperson, and you want to include a summary field that displays the total sales amount. The button on the first tab is hooked up to the “Go to Object” script step to take the user to the second tab – both tabs have object names.

I also use the side anchors, and that way if you have 1 field that potentially can hold a lot of text, like a description or notes field, you can expand to show more of that at a time. Just have to make sure that only field expands, so you don’t end up with overlapping fields. It is possible to anchor to the left side, right side or to both sides of the layout, too. If you anchor to both sides, consider anchoring the fields in the portal to both sides, too. Remember that you can use the arrow to the left of each field to move them up and down in the list on the right.