Variable Child forms

[renovator]

Good Day,


I am doing a simple file management database, BUT my friend wants different fields filled in based on the category of file (Where category is not the same as a file type such as ppt) such as journal article or a book or a case or a presentation

1. user browses the file system and adds a file hyperlink
2. they use the "category" field and set it to = journal article or a book or....
3. based on the category field I need data filled in - some is the same for all of them but mostly it is different, For each category I have a different file,

The options I have come up with are
4.1 a sub form to appear for each category type
OR
4.2 a sub form which shows all the fields for all the categories, but stops entry into fields that are not valid for the category
OR
4.3 I had normalized all the data BUT the user wants to search all the fields so I am not sure whether I should just reuse the fields for differnet purposes to cut down the number of fields he has to search for

regards Renovator

[ItsMe]

Before worrying about how to build the form, you need to decide how to store the data. Do you have your tables and their relationships defined? Perhaps adding some attributes to an entity or two will be the solution to your problem.

[renovator]

Hi ItsMe,
I have the structure and ended up with a tab for each category that showed the file details and a subform for the data unique to the category eg for Journal (journal name, date, page number, author). My friend didn't like that as he wanted to
1/ browse and choose a file then
2/ display the file
3/ and decide the category
4/ choose the category eg journal
5/ enter the data (journal name, date, page number, author)

[ItsMe]

Perhaps you can provide a diagram of the table structure. In order to offer advice, we would need to know actual names of tables, columns, the Keys and where the Foreign Keys are.

[renovator]

Perhaps you can provide a diagram of the table structure. In order to offer advice, we would need to know actual names of tables, columns, the Keys and where the Foreign Keys are.

hi,
there are 5 types of files
Doc_CaseLaw
Doc_Advice
Doc_Seminar
Doc_Regulation
Doc_NonCaselaw

[ItsMe]

I would probably use different forms for different scenarios. Code would determine which form to use for the Subfrom Control's Source Object. I would create a custom search function that would consider the appropriate table to use based on the entity selected.

I would likely use Enumeration types and custom functions in a Standard Module. These functions would support assigning different Objects to different scenarios. The Enumeration would support strongly typed code within my form modules. For instance, one of the functions could return a table def instantiated as one of the options from the Enumeration.