Linking Subforms on Unbound Master Form?

[10 Gauge]

I am setting up a Purchase Order system and my initial thought and layout is to have 3 subforms on an unbound master form.



The first subform is a list of Repair Order #'s.

The second subform is a list of Purchase Orders for the selected Repair Order.

The third subform is a list of Return Purchase Orders for the selected Repair Order.

How would I go about linking the second and third subforms to display the information related to the selected record in the first subform?

Thanks for any help.

[NTC]

well its not entirely clear from your post. the way you post it - you imply that there is multiple POs to a Repair Order........and multiple 'return POs' also.....

keep in mind that one can not put a subform into a continous (list) form....subforms only go into single forms....

it sounds to me your Repair Order is your main form; in this form you have a combo or list box in the header that selects the order to go to.

then you have a PO subform and RPO subform.....

Hope it helps.

[rpeare]

If your main form is unbound you can't link a subform to it. You can however only show records associated with the item displayed on the main form by using a query to look up any value associated with the primary key on the main form (I'm assuming you're populating it in a text box or on a list box/combo box or something of that nature)

Bear in mind though that if your main form is unbound you will have to specifically tell your subform to inherit the primary key of the main form or you will create a bunch of orphaned elements in your subforms.

[10 Gauge]

Ok thanks for the ideas and suggestions.

I just decided to make one of the subforms the master form and then add the other 2 subforms.

Here's my next question, I am trying to add a 3rd subform now that's related to the data in subform 2. How can I link 2 subforms together so that when I choose a record in subform 2 it updates subform 3 with the related data?

[rpeare]

Without knowing how your form is set up I can't answer this.

Is your structure like this:

MAIN FORM---->SUBFORM1---->SUBFORM2

If all the forms are bound forms (which you indicate you have done I think) then subform2 will inherit the key field from subform1 whenever you add something new to subform2. Subform1 will inherit the key field from MAIN FORM whenever you add something new to subform1.

Or is your structure like this:

          ------>SUBFORM1
MAIN FORM<
          ------>SUBFORM2

And you're trying to pass a value from subform1 to subform2 without them being related via parent/child?

[10 Gauge]

The first 2 subforms are linked to the main form.

I am trying to link the 3rd subform to the 2nd subform.

[rpeare]

So you're trying to make RPOPARTS Subform1 a subform of RETURN PURCHASE ORDERS?

You would probably have to go into the design of RETURN PURCHASE ORDERS and create the subform in that one. You're using the default design which I never use so it's hard to give you direction but try creating your RPOPARTS Subform1 within the RETURN PURCHASE ORDERS form and see what happens.

[10 Gauge]

That definitely works adding it as a subform to the subform. It's not quite the layout I was hoping for but I think it will have to do for now at least!

Thanks.

[rpeare]

That's why I design my own subforms rather than using the default, the default forms never really give you exactly what you want.