FILEMAKER: Don’t Forget You Can Start Your Portal At A Row Other The The First

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

CHAPTER 01: The Basics

As you know, a portal is designed to give you a mini list view of records related to the current record you are browsing. You can add a vertical scroll bar to view an almost unlimited number of related records. In some cases, you might have a limited amount of horizontal data to show the user and in a case like this, you can setup dueling portals. For example, one portal can show you related records 1 through 18 and the second portal (using the same relationship and fields can show you records 19 through 36.

Here you can see the dialog box setup for the second portal row.

Here you can see the staff layout from my InBizness product and we are looking at the portals that show the media file records that are associated with that staff member record.

Now the FileMaker 9 feature of auto resizing can goof you up a little here. If you have portal auto resizing setup, your first portal will dynamically show you more than the 18 records when the window is expanded. So you will see duplicate records in the second portals and unfortunately, I don’t have a resolution for that.

If you have any ideas or comments, please feel free to send them my way and I’ll update this blog post accordingly!
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More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FILEMAKER: GTRR Works Only In Browse Mode

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

CHAPTER 10: Troubleshooting Portals

This is somewhat obvious but it can still get you into some trouble. The GTRR doesn’t work in FIND or PRINT PREVIEW modes. So if you use them in the script, you might want to prelude the GTRR script step with the Enter Browse Mode script step. This way you can have the expected results no matter what mode the user was in when they execute the script.

It’s always a good idea to make sure your user is in the desired mode when they run scripts. You may feel that the Enter Browse Mode in the beginning of the script is enough and many times it is. However, if the script is fairly complex, it never hurts to have that Go To Mode step again right before a section of the script that is critically dependent on it.

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More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FILEMAKER: Broken Relationships Due To Missing File

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

CHAPTER 10: Troubleshooting Portals

A FileMaker relationship is designed to link one table to another table (except in some places where the other table is the same table and this is called a self relationship). In some cases, the other table may be located in another file and FileMaker uses a system called External Data Sources. This is one of the options you have available to you under the Manage menu.


So when FileMaker needs to use a relationship that involves an external file, it will attempt to open the related file automatically. This can happen when you go to a layout that has a related field, a calculation using a relationship or a portal. Since FileMaker knows that it will need that data to show the screen properly, it attempts to open the related file automatically. If FileMaker cannot find the file, you will get an error message that leads you to the define relationship dialog box.

Normally, you can fix this problem by telling FileMaker where the related file is currently via the define relationships dialog box. If possible, it is always best for FileMaker is two files that related are on the same folder.

This error can come up in a number of different situations but is most common when a file has been moved, renamed or missing. Some other conditions I've seen the problem come up are ...

- the related file is normally on the network and currently is not on the network

- the related file is normally on the network but the user is not on the network

- some changes have been done to the network firewall and the host can no longer see the shared file

- the relationship was setup for a file on a removable disk and that disk is not in the removable drive

- the computers hard disk has some directory damage and FileMaker cannot see the file

- some of the files are still in an older FileMaker format such as FileMaker 6

- the FileMaker file itself is damaged and needs recovery



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More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FILEMAKER: Dealing With Portal Problems

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

CHAPTER 10: Troubleshooting Portals

Wow, I’m beginning to come to the end of the content I wrote for my FileMaker 6 Guide to portals. This is the last chapter of that guide in which I’m updating the content on this blog. Pretty soon, it is going to be all fresh and new content!

Portals are pretty much trouble free when used in the basic way they were intended. However, this blog covers much more than the basics and FileMaker is so flexible that you can occasionally run into a portal related problem. In this upcoming series of posts, we are going to cover some of the problems that can come up in portal design.

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More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.