Our factory rates employees by using 5 ranks:
rank1 - Uncertified
rank2 - Certified
rank3 - Instructor
rank4 - Master Instructor
rank5 - Supervisor
I want to have a layout where 3 fields need to be shown:
1) First field - Drop-down list which shows only employees with rank1
2) Second field - Drop-down list which shows only employees with either rank3 or rank4
3) Third field - Drop-down list which shows only employees with rank5
I don't know how to make each field conditional using the above conditions
I have set up 3 tables:
rank: _pkRankID, RankName
employee: _pkEmpID, EmpFname, EmpLname, _fkRankID
trackingform: _pkFormID, FormDate FormComments, FormRating, _fkEmpID
I am getting very frustrated trying to figure out what fields to use and how to set up a conditional statement. I either get a ? or a 0 (zero) or nothing in my Drop-down box.
Could someone walk me through step-by-step how to do this please?
Based on your description, I put together a sample file that accomplishes this.
It involves:
Creating several global fields, corresponding to the appropriate rank ID
Create several Table Occurrences on the Relationship Graph, with relationships based on the global fields
Create several value lists, which pull from the Table Occurrences you created
You can download the sample file at http://cris.lc/pcuf4
Related
I am new to Filemaker pro. I am working with Filemaker pro 13.
My database contains 3 tables:
category (fields = _pkCatID & CatName)
subcategory (fields = _pkSubcatID , _fkCatID & SubcatName)
books (many fields including _fkSubcatID)
I have no problems in conditional value lists, so making two popup menus in books layout for categories and subcategories was successful.
But I want to put both categories and subcategories in one menu/sub-menu using 2empowerfm Menu Popper plugin.
I created a new field in subcategory table to store a calculation to be used in the value list of the plugin.
The calculation is = CatName & ">" & SubcatName & ";" & _pkSubcatID .
So the returned value when choosing in books layout will be "_pkSubcatID".
The problem is CatName is not in Subcategory table, and if I choose it from the related table Category, I can't make the calculation "stored" which is a requirement to use a field in a value list.
So, I need to copy the field CatName from category table to a new created field in subcategory table. I don't know how to do it.
You just need to create a lookup field in your subcat table pointed to the category name in the category table.
Create a field in the sub-cat table called "Category"
Click on Options
Auto-Enter Tab at the bottom, check "Looked-up value"
Select the correct starting (subcat) and related (Cat) tables and select the name field for the Category.
That is all.
To populate this for existing records click into the _fkCatID field on a subcat layout after showing all records and in the menus select Records->Relookup Field Contents
#Michael Wallace answer is correct and that solution should work.
I'd add however that if the table is likely to become large (and it could do if you're cataloguing books for a library) then I'd suggest you run some tests on a fake large data to see if this menu technique holds up (especially if you are serving over a network). Running two global search fields with an executeSQL lookup for subcategory within category would be more efficient in a big data set - this technique is well described here and other places:
http://forums.filemaker.com/posts/c4ed6f9923
I am relatively new to Filemaker programming, but I have come across what I thought was a bug, which I have been tearing my hair out trying to squash, only to find it is more a "feature" than a bug. I have a field set as the key for lookups in a ms sql database which I have created a relationship with. I have it set as a drop down, and it is showing 2 fields (last name and first name). Unfortunately, it only shows 1 person per last name in the sorted list (example, there are 5 people with the last name "Bennett" but only 1 shows). After driving myself nuts trying to find the error, I found the following in the filemaker troubleshooting section:
"
If the value list is defined to display information from two fields, items will not be duplicated for the field on which the value list is sorted. For example, if the value list displays information from the Company field and the Name field, and if the values are sorted by the Company field, only one person from each company will appear in the value list."
As I read it, I can't do what I need to do with a value list (display EVERY last name from the sql file) so what other options do I have? I have experimented with creating a portal which DOES show a list of ALL the last names and first names, but I don't know/understand enough to know what logic/functionality I need so if I click one of the people in the portal list it will do the same thing as if I clicked it in a dropdown value list, which is to then do the lookups and populate the rest of the fields in this database from the information in the record in the sql database. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated, and I appreciate any help any of you can offer. Thank you!
There might be some things that cause this;
You cannot create a link based on a calculation that needs to be calculated each time (Filemaker does not know what to do with this, logical in a way)
Based on what you do I would personally link the two tables based on an lets say company ID instead of a name, as a one to many join. This will definitely eliminate the 'feature' filemaker has of showing unique names only in the joined table. On database level I would join on ID, on Value list I would select the ID as first field and the (calculated) name as second field, than showing only the second field (option in the value list definition popup) for your selection list.
Hope this helps.
I am trying to work around a limitation that Filemaker 12 seems to have. In a value list that links to an ODBC attached SQL Server database, it doesn't display every piece of data. If there are 2 people with the same last name for example, it only displays the first person with that last name in the list. This is verified by the following in the Filemaker documentation (which I found after a lot of digging)
If the value list is defined to display information from two fields, items will not be duplicated for the field on which the value list is sorted. For example, if the value list displays information from the Company field and the Name field, and if the values are sorted by the Company field, only one person from each company will appear in the value list.
Portals on the other hand will find all the related data, I just don't understand how do something with the data once I get it in the portal. I essentially thus wish to use a portal AS my drop-down value list, and then to use it as I would have a value list (which is then to act as the key to do the rest of the lookups on the page to fill out the invoice.
The major issue here (other than this maddening choice Filemaker seems to make) is that the external file I am pulling the data from is an ODBC mounted SQL Server file, so I can't do something easy like a calculated field which would give me last name & " " & first which would make almost every person unique. Filemaker won't let me do that because it says I can't do that with a field that is not indexed. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Assuming that we're starting with table MyTable and we're trying to get a ID from the People table for the selected person, which we'll call ID so that we can put it into MyTable::PersonID
Start by creating a new Table Occurrence of your People table and call it PeopleWhoCanBeSelected. If you want every person in the People table you can connect it to MyTable with the X relationship. If you want to show just a subset of the people you can build a different relationship.
Now, on a layout displaying records from MyTable you will make a portal showing records from the PeopleWhoCanBeSelected table.
In the portal put a button. When that button is pressed use the Set Field script step:
Set Field MyTable::PersonID to:
PeopleWhoCanBeSelected::ID
That should do it. You can make the button an invisible overlay on the entire portal record if you like, so that the user clicks on "the name" instead of "the button next to the name".
Now, if you want to pull additional data through to the MyTable record, you'll need to create a second Table Occurrence, called People with the relationship MyTable::PersonID = People::ID. Then you can get information on the specifically chosen person through that relationship.
My CMS is currently Movable Type 5.04. The attached screenshot is how I check in Compose Screen of MT CMS.
And it appears in the new entry create page with the following order.
- Location 5
- Job Description 5
- Bio 5
- Job Title 5
I would like to change the order into following.
- Job Title 5
- Location 5
- Job Description 5
- Bio 5
Is there any way to do so? I have checked in the cfg_entry.tmpl file and the above Entry fields were not there as there were custom fields. Could you please help me sort them like above?
the order of the fields are stored into the permission table, in 'permission_entry_prefs' field. (and there is a matching field for the page)
the row with blog_id 0 is the user defaults, and each blog's raw will override the default for this blog.
and the format is very simple: comma delimited list. you should find there something like "title,text,tags,assets". just reorder them for your liking.
If the user will toggle on and off fields, I'm not sure if the original order will return or not. if it does, then a simple plugin can solve it in more permanent way.
I remember doing this by recreating the custom fields in the wanted order (MT pulls them from the DB in a specific order, sorted by ID IIRC). If you have existing data, then you need to delete the fields definitions (not the data) then recreate them in the order you want changing just their numerical ID (not anything else).
I'm traveling and busy at the moment so can't dig into details. But study how CF are defined in the DB and how to simply reorder them by ID.
I have a table like this:
Application,Program,UsedObject
It can have data like this:
A,P1,ZZ
A,P1,BB
A,P2,CC
B,F1,KK
I'd like to create a layout to show:
Application,# of Programs
A,2
B,1
The point is to count the distinct programs.
For the life of me I can't make this work in FileMaker. I've created a summary field to count programs resetting after each group, but because it doesn't eliminate the duplicate programs I get:
A,3
B,1
Any help much appreciated.
Create a a summary field as:
cntApplicaiton = Count of Application
Do this by going into define fields, create a field called cntApplication, type summary. In the options dialogue make the summary field a count on application
Now create a new layout with a subsummary part and nobody. The subsummary should be sorted on Application. Put the Application and cntApplication fields in subsummary. If you enter browse mode and sort by Application you ought to get the data you want.
You can also create a calc field with the formula
GetSummary(cntApplication; Application)
This will allow you to use the total number of Applications with in a record
Since I also generate the data in this form, the solution I've adopted is to fill two tables in FileMaker. One provides the summary view, the other the detailed view.
I think that your problem is down to dupliate records and an inadequate key.
Create a text field called "App_Prog". In the options box set it to an auto-enter calc, unchecking the 'Do not replace...' option, and use the following calc:
Application & "_" & Program
Now create a self join to the table using App_Prog as the field on both sides, and call this 'MatchingApps'.
Now, create (if you don't alread have one) a unique serial number field, 'Counter' say, and make sure that you enter a value in each record. (Find all, click in the field, and use serial number option in'Replace Field Contents...')
Now add a new calc field - Is_Duplicate with the following calc...
If (Counter = MatchingApps::Counter; "Master Record" ; "Duplicate")
Finally, find all, click in the 'Application field, and use 'Replace Field Contents...' with a calculation to force the auto-enter calc for 'App_Prog' to come up with a value.
Where does this get you? You should now have a set of records that are marker either "Master Record" or "Duplicate". Do a find on "Master Record", and then you can perform your summary (by Application) to do a count of distinct application-program pairs.
If you have access to custom functions (you need FileMaker Pro Advanced), I'd do it like this:
Add the RemoveDuplicates function as found here (this is a recursive function that takes a list of strings and returns a list of unique values).
In the relationships graph, add another occurrence of your table and add an Application = Application relationship.
Create a calculated field in the table with the calculation looking something like this:
ValueCount(RemoveDuplicates(List(TABLE2::Program)))
You'll find that each record will contain the number of distinct programs for the given application. Showing a summary for each application should be relatively trivial from here.
I think the best way to do this is to create a separate applications table. So as you've given the data, it would have two records, one for A and one for B.
So, with the addition of an Applications table and your existing table, which I'll call Objects, create a relationship from Applications to Objects (with a table occurrence called ObjectsParent) based on the ApplicationName as the match field. Create a self join relationship between Objects and itself with both Application and Program as the match fields. I'll call one of the "table occurrences" ObjectsParent and the other ObjectsChildren. Make sure that there's a primary key field in Objects that is set to auto-enter a serial number or some other method to ensure uniqueness. I'll call this ID.
So your relationship graph has three table occurrences:
Applications::Applicaiton = ObjectsParent::Application
ObjectsParent::Application = ObjectsChildren::Application, ObjectsParent::Program = ObjectsChildren::Program
Now create a calculation field in Objects, and calculating from the context of ObjectsParent, give it the following formula:
AppCount = Count( ObjectsChildren::ID )
Create a calculation field in Applications and calculating from the context of the table occurrence you used to relate it to ObjectsParent with the following formula:
AppCount = ObjectsParent::AppCount
The count field in Objects will have the same value for every object with the same application, so it doesn't matter which one you get this data from.
If you now view the data in Applications in list view, you can place the Applications::Application and Applications::AppCount fields on the layout and you should get what you've requested.