VISUAL QUICKPRO GUIDE FileMaker Pro 7 Advanced FOR WINDOWS AND MACINTOSH [Electronic resources]

Using Multi-criteria Relationships

In the portal that lists everyone in a particular company that we created earlier, it would be nice if the records displayed in the portal did not include the current name. You can do that by creating a multi-criteria relationshipone that uses multiple fields to create a relationship.

Using the multi-criteria relationship capa bility in FileMaker Pro 7 and the Full Name calculation field we created in Chapter 4, "Calculation Fields," we can modify the Contacts by Company relationship to filter out the current name from the portal. As a bonus, you can see how to use operators like greater than or not equal to to create complex relationships.

To create a multi-criteria relationship

1 .

Choose File > Define > Database (Control+Shift+D/Command+Shift+D). When the Define Database dialog box appears, click the Relationships tab.

2 .

In the Relationships graph, double-click the relational operator between Contacts and Contacts by Company (Figure 6.63).

3 .When the Edit Relationship dialog box appears, choose the Full Name field in the left list. Click the Not Equal To operator (Figure 6.64).

4 .Click the Full Name field in the right list, then click the Add button (Figure 6.65). Click OK twice to finish.

By adding the second relationship criteria, you modify the criteria for displaying company names in the portal.

5 .When you switch to Browse mode, the names in the Contacts by Company portal will not include the name of the person in the current record (Figure 6.66).

Tips

In addition to using the equals and not equals operators, relationships can be created using comparative operators like greater than or less than. These operators are particularly useful for number, date, and time comparisons.

In the Relationships graph, a relationship is displayed with an X (Figure 6.67) to indicate that the relationship is not a simple match. You'll see an X when you create a multi-criteria relationship in which the different criteria use a mix of operators.

File Maintenance

As a file grows with use, its file size will grow too. This can slow down operations like Finds and Sorts. You can trim the file down using the File > Save a Copy As > Compacted Copy command (Figure 6.68). When you save the copy and use the compacted copy (smaller) option, FileMaker creates a new version of the file, adding the word "Copy" to the file name. Once you have the new version, you can close the original file, rename it, and then rename the smaller version with the original name.