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Using Multi-key Relationships

Submitted by Editor on Mon, 08/07/2017 - 3:49pm

Within FileMaker development, there are a variety of must-know features and methods for doing certain things. You’ll be hard pressed to find these critical bits of info within the provided help.

However, these are nuances which come with the environment and really only make sense once you start to integrate them into your user interfaces. One of these “hidden” features is known as Multi-key relationships.

Using multi-key relationships, you can present data within the user interface which is derived from a variety of tables. There’s really no limit on how much data you can show from however many tables you desire. The limitation is truly only your imagination about how the data should be presented.

While the implementation is super easy, the understanding behind how things work is what will move your FileMaker solutions to the next level.

Tags:
Relationship Graph
Multi-key fields
AttachmentSize
UsingMulti-keyRelationships.zip1.65 MB

Graph Management Techniques

Submitted by Editor on Thu, 10/20/2016 - 3:47pm

When was the last time you opened the Relationship Graph and heard that little voice say “Wow, you’ve gotta clean this up!”? Maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was just a few moments ago.

Whenever the voices come, it’s a pretty easy task to accomplish when you apply some solid understanding to how the graph works and what it represents in the whole of your solution.

If code could write itself, then organization would never be necessary because no one would need to maintain or revise it. It would simply rewrite itself as needed. Sort of like how a tree grows. When a new branch is needed, it just starts to grow. Unfortunately, you’re the gardner of your own creations so you need to apply some forethought to what you create when working in the Relationship Graph.

In this video, I provide my own personal insights into how I approach the graph and what I think makes for an easier solution to maintain. When you consider how complex a FileMaker solution can quickly become, the notion of keeping things easy to work with should be a high priority.

Tags:
Relationship Graph
Schema