FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual

Connecting Databases

In FileMaker, you can make two databases work together as easily as you work with multiple tables. Using the data tunneling techniques discussed in the previous section, you connect tables from another file (often called an external database) without the overhead of copying all that data into your file. You simply put a table occurrence from your external file onto your relationship graph, which defines its perspective in relation to all your other tables.

For example, suppose you want to connect the People database you created in Chapter 3 to your new system. You’d like a portal on the Customers layout to show all the people in the People database who live in the same state as that customer. After all, you never know when one of your leads will come in handy.

POWER USERS’ CLINIC: The Secret Life of GTRR

The layout in Figure 8-23 is pretty slick, but there’s one problem. Suppose you’re on the Expenses layout looking at an expense. You decide you want to assign an invoice line item to it, so you switch to the “Attach Line Item to Expenses” layout. Unfortunately, when you do, you don’t see the same record. Remember that each table occurrence has its own current record, found set, and sort order. You’re forced to find the same record again.

It turns out the “Go to Related Record” command has an unexpected power: It can transfer a found set—complete with current record and sort order—from one table occurrence to another. The “Go to Related Record” Options window has ...