Sliding portals

Hi Group -

I have always subscribed to the notion that one shouldn't include a
portal in a layout intended for printing (at least not if you care what
it looks like when it prints). However, sometimes it would be very nice
to print a list report including, for each record, a few records each
from two or more child databases or tables. For instance, a list of
Projects with a few Tasks, Notes and Participants included. The ability
to slide portal rows up when printing has been on my wish list for a
long time, and I very much appreciate that FM seems to be thinking about
it too, since I find that versions 8 and 9 will allow sliding to be
specified for portals and it doesn't work badly. It doesn't help much,
though, if the "reduce size of enclosing part" option doesn't work.
Which it seems not to. I've tried it extensively in both OSX and
Windows, with and without all applicable FM updaters.

Has anyone else encountered this, been frustrated, inquired of FM, or
learned a workaround?

Many thanks in advance -
James

Re: Sliding portals

In article <478805e5$0$9609$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>, James
wrote:

> Hi Group -
>
> I have always subscribed to the notion that one shouldn't include a
> portal in a layout intended for printing (at least not if you care what
> it looks like when it prints). However, sometimes it would be very nice
> to print a list report including, for each record, a few records each
> from two or more child databases or tables. For instance, a list of
> Projects with a few Tasks, Notes and Participants included. The ability
> to slide portal rows up when printing has been on my wish list for a
> long time, and I very much appreciate that FM seems to be thinking about
> it too, since I find that versions 8 and 9 will allow sliding to be
> specified for portals and it doesn't work badly. It doesn't help much,
> though, if the "reduce size of enclosing part" option doesn't work.
> Which it seems not to. I've tried it extensively in both OSX and
> Windows, with and without all applicable FM updaters.
>
> Has anyone else encountered this, been frustrated, inquired of FM, or
> learned a workaround?
>
> Many thanks in advance -
> James

Don't print Portals.

You should always print from the child side of the Relationship, but of
course sometimes you have a Many<->Many Relationship that makes it not
possible to do this.

The usual "workaround" is to script the collation / summarising of the
related records to a single Text field, and then print that instead of
the Portal.

Another way is to combine all the wanted fields into one Calculation
field for each related record in the Child table, and then use a Value
List that obtains it's values from the Related Calculation field, then
in a Parent table have a Calculation field that obtains these Value
List items using the ValueListItems function. (You may also be able to
use the new List function in newer versions of FileMaker to simplify
this process.) BUT there is likely to be a limit to how much text the
Value List actually retrieves, so this may not work for many fields or
lots of data.


Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

Re: Sliding portals

Hi HH -

And many thanks for the discussion / suggestions. I have told clients
and other developers many times that portals aren't intended for
printing, but I am encouraged that FM seems to be slowly making them
more manageable.

I'm going to mess around with that List function a bit and if I find a
reliable method, I'll post.

Thanks again -
James

Helpful Harry wrote:
> In article <478805e5$0$9609$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>, James
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Group -
>>
>> I have always subscribed to the notion that one shouldn't include a
>> portal in a layout intended for printing (at least not if you care what
>> it looks like when it prints). However, sometimes it would be very nice
>> to print a list report including, for each record, a few records each
>> from two or more child databases or tables. For instance, a list of
>> Projects with a few Tasks, Notes and Participants included. The ability
>> to slide portal rows up when printing has been on my wish list for a
>> long time, and I very much appreciate that FM seems to be thinking about
>> it too, since I find that versions 8 and 9 will allow sliding to be
>> specified for portals and it doesn't work badly. It doesn't help much,
>> though, if the "reduce size of enclosing part" option doesn't work.
>> Which it seems not to. I've tried it extensively in both OSX and
>> Windows, with and without all applicable FM updaters.
>>
>> Has anyone else encountered this, been frustrated, inquired of FM, or
>> learned a workaround?
>>
>> Many thanks in advance -
>> James
>
> Don't print Portals.
>
> You should always print from the child side of the Relationship, but of
> course sometimes you have a Many<->Many Relationship that makes it not
> possible to do this.
>
> The usual "workaround" is to script the collation / summarising of the
> related records to a single Text field, and then print that instead of
> the Portal.
>
> Another way is to combine all the wanted fields into one Calculation
> field for each related record in the Child table, and then use a Value
> List that obtains it's values from the Related Calculation field, then
> in a Parent table have a Calculation field that obtains these Value
> List items using the ValueListItems function. (You may also be able to
> use the new List function in newer versions of FileMaker to simplify
> this process.) BUT there is likely to be a limit to how much text the
> Value List actually retrieves, so this may not work for many fields or
> lots of data.
>
>
> Helpful Harry
> Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

Re: Sliding portals

On 2008-01-12 05:41:35 +0100, James said:

> Hi HH -
>
> And many thanks for the discussion / suggestions. I have told clients
> and other developers many times that portals aren't intended for
> printing, but I am encouraged that FM seems to be slowly making them
> more manageable.
>
> I'm going to mess around with that List function a bit and if I find a
> reliable method, I'll post.
>
> Thanks again -
> James
>
> Helpful Harry wrote:
>> In article <478805e5$0$9609$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>, James
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Group -
>>>
>>> I have always subscribed to the notion that one shouldn't include a
>>> portal in a layout intended for printing (at least not if you care what
>>> it looks like when it prints). However, sometimes it would be very
>>> nice to print a list report including, for each record, a few records
>>> each from two or more child databases or tables. For instance, a list
>>> of Projects with a few Tasks, Notes and Participants included. The
>>> ability to slide portal rows up when printing has been on my wish list
>>> for a long time, and I very much appreciate that FM seems to be
>>> thinking about it too, since I find that versions 8 and 9 will allow
>>> sliding to be specified for portals and it doesn't work badly. It
>>> doesn't help much, though, if the "reduce size of enclosing part"
>>> option doesn't work. Which it seems not to. I've tried it extensively
>>> in both OSX and Windows, with and without all applicable FM updaters.
>>>
>>> Has anyone else encountered this, been frustrated, inquired of FM, or
>>> learned a workaround?
>>>
>>> Many thanks in advance -
>>> James
>>
>> Don't print Portals.
>>
>> You should always print from the child side of the Relationship, but of
>> course sometimes you have a Many<->Many Relationship that makes it not
>> possible to do this.
>> The usual "workaround" is to script the collation / summarising of the
>> related records to a single Text field, and then print that instead of
>> the Portal.
>>
>> Another way is to combine all the wanted fields into one Calculation
>> field for each related record in the Child table, and then use a Value
>> List that obtains it's values from the Related Calculation field, then
>> in a Parent table have a Calculation field that obtains these Value
>> List items using the ValueListItems function. (You may also be able to
>> use the new List function in newer versions of FileMaker to simplify
>> this process.) BUT there is likely to be a limit to how much text the
>> Value List actually retrieves, so this may not work for many fields or
>> lots of data.
>>
>>
>> Helpful Harry Hopefully helping harassed humans
>> happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

Hey,
but the sliding up for portalrows does work....
not in browse mode but in prewiev and print mode.
You must select the portal, not the field in the portal, and mark the
the portal Sliding up based on: All above , and check the Also reduce
the size of the enclosing part.
I have a arrivallist for bookings, and on this list I hava portal with
25 line items and a textfield that have diffrent size on the printed
report.

Nicolay