Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Creating a New Table Occurrence Group
Before you start creating the new TOs, review your goals. Since the Assign Expenses layout
needs the context of the Expenses table, it's easy to see that you need a new Expenses TO. Its
purpose is to show invoice line items based on an Invoice ID you enter in a global field, and
to show the job name when you've decided which job an expense belongs to. You also want
to show the line item attached to that expense, so you need a second new TO for line items.
With these TOs, you'll be able to see and manage the following information:
▪ The name of the job associated with an invoice
▪ The line items attached to that invoice
Figure 14-15
shows all the new table occurrences you need to create and the way you'll ar-
range them to make the new layout work.
Figure 14-15. The naming scheme helps you figure out which table each occurrence needs to come
from. Since the new layout will use the Expenses__EXPENSES TO as its context, it's placed on the
left of the TOG. Even though the main TOG relates expenses to invoices via a job, you have a direct
relationship in this group.
The steps are simple if you take it one table at a time:
1.
If necessary, click the Manage Database window's Relationships tab
.
You need to see your existing Relationships graph.
2.
Click the Add Table Occurrence button. When the Specify Table window ap-
pears, select the Expenses table
.
When you create your layout later, it'll have the context (or viewpoint) of the Ex-
penses table, so it makes sense to create it first.
3.
In the “Name of Table Occurrence” box, type
Expenses__EXPENSES
and then
click OK
.
That's two underscore characters, to put this TO at the top of the list when it's sorted
alphabetically. When you click OK, FileMaker adds the new table occurrence to the
middle of the graph. Move it out of the way to get ready for the next steps.
