Grouping Records

[sirsancho]

I have a question that may or may not be feasible. I have converted an Excel Spreadsheet of records. These records are breakdowns of designs and scenes related to a school project I am working on. On the excel sheet they were segregated by color and formatting so you could tell one project from another.

 

In Filemaker, I have the respective scenes/designs segregated into seperate records. Is there a way, to group a set of records into a particular format (color preferably) on a list of different records.

 

For example, say I have six scenes broken out for a project called 280, four scenes for a project called 281, and three scenes for project 282? Is there a way to make all of 280 show up as blue and 281 as green and 282 as red (examples only) on the same list? So that way I could at a glance know which records belonged to which projects by color or other distinctive format.

 

I am not sure if it's rudimentary or impossible. Any help or direction would help a bunch.

 

Thanks,

Shaun Hamid

[sujat]

Make a global container repetitive field say, Bknd global ( repetition 3 in your case)

 

Make another field say, bknd colour - calculation - container

 

Case(Project=280,GetRepetition ( Bkgnd Global; 1 ),Project=281,GetRepetition ( Bkgnd Global; 2 ),Project=282,GetRepetition ( Bkgnd Global; 3))

 

Put all your fields on top of bknd colour.

 

Colour the Bknd global with any colour you want.

[Maarten Witberg]

You could use the mod( ) function to create color coding without hardcoding of the project numbers. Like this:

 

GetRepetition ( Utility::BackgroundColorBar ; Mod ( ProjectNumber ; Utility::NumberOfColors ) +1 )

 

You can store the repeating container field with the color swatches in a utility table that is matched by X-join to the project table.

If you want 3 alternating colors, store 3 in NumberOfColors, if you want 5 or 10 or a any number, likewise.

If you want a unique color, then a different approach is necessary, but I don't really see how that would be useful.

[sujat]

Yes it is better and simple.

Thanks

[sirsancho]

I suppose I am not as versed in this as I thought I was. I apologize if these seem like pure rookie questions.Opps!

 

You can store the repeating container field with the color swatches in a utility table that is matched by X-join to the project table.

If you want 3 alternating colors, store 3 in NumberOfColors, if you want 5 or 10 or a any number, likewise.

If you want a unique color, then a different approach is necessary, but I don't really see how that would be useful.

 

What is x-join and how do I do it?

 

As well I created the repeating container field, how do I store the color swatches? Do I simply paste in a cut out of the color in a picture file?

 

As well, what do I do with the NumberOfColors field? What kind of field is it? I don't need specific colors, just basic ones would be fine.

 

Thanks for answering, I am glad to knwo it is possible. (once I figure out how)

 

Thanks!

Shaun

[Maarten Witberg]

What is x-join and how do I do it?

see here and particularly here

see the last option in the table: all records are related to all records regardless of the content of the match fields. A utility table will never hold more than one record though! it is used to store preferences, default values etc, and in this case, color swatches for your purpose.

Do I simply paste in a cut out of the color in a picture file?

yes. For a limited number of colors / images, you can insert a picture (there's a menu command, select the container and go to menu->record->insert) . For large series of images, store a ref only. In this case, store the image itself (see checkbox lower left of dialog window).

 

what do I do with the NumberOfColors field?

NumberOfColors is the place where you store the number that represents the number of non-empty repetitions in the swatches container field. If you have five repetitions filled, use 5, and the five swatches will alternate. If three, then 3, etc. You can also hardcode the number if you think it will never change.

Like this:

GetRepetition ( Utility::BackgroundColorBar ; Mod ( ProjectNumber ; 5 ) )

 

If you need more help, please post again.

[sirsancho]

Thanks a ton Kjoe. You have helped me a lot.

 

Just a last couple of questions. When I import the pictures into the Background Reference Container field they are gone whenever I close and reopen the database. As well, it slows down the datbse a great deal. Is there a file format or size I should be using. The field is not that big but to fill it the swtaches need to be pretty big.

 

I'm sure I can figure out the latter question on my own, but the former I could use help with.

 

Thanks again!

Shaun

[sirsancho]

Figured out the speed issue, just need helpw ith the first question.

 

Thanks,

Shaun

[Maarten Witberg]

That behaviour is consistent with a networked solution if you use global fields. In the utility table, you should use ordinary fields.

If this is not the issue, then you need to describe in more detail what you have (or upgrade your membership and upload a screen view of the TO graph and / or a sample of your work. )