There's not really any passive way for a child record to know it's also a parent. Filemaker is fairly event driven; you'll need some kind of event to tell that child the news.
If you're using Filemaker 10, then that event can be loading a record, which would drive a script trigger. The script would set a global to the value of the current record's ID. The conditional formatting in the portal row would be revealed if the ID of the record in the portal row were the same as the global. In other words, the formula for the conditional formatting would be: Record_ID = Global_ID The script triggered by OnRecordLoad would be: Set Field["Global_ID"; "Record_ID"] OnRecordLoad is a layout trigger; it will be called each time you 'page back' to a different record. If you are using an earlier version, you'll need to script navigation between records, and then add the same script step to the nav script. John Weinshel Datagrace Vashon Island, WA (206) 463-1634 Member, FileMaker Business Alliance Certified For FileMaker 10 -----Original Message----- From: FileMaker Pro Discussions [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charlie Abrams Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 11:11 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Identifying the Current Record Highlight the portal record fields in layout mode. Select Format Menu/ Conditional. Under the condition, select Formula. In the calculation dialog, have your "'framistans'" ID = to the parent record key. In other words, if the parent key for the framisans record is equal to the parent key of the current record, then do something. Charlie Bonding Solutions, Inc. On Nov 4, 2009, at 1:51 PM, Richard S. Russell wrote: > Here's a little problem I'm encountering, and I can't figure out a > way around it. Probably I'm just overlooking something obvious. > > My problem is that every record thinks that IT is the current record > - or at least it behaves that way - and there seems to be no easy > way to check to find out if it really IS the current record. > > To help make this problem statement easier to understand, I'm going > to introduce a new term: "This Record". Let me illustrate what I > mean. Here's a very brief set of records from the "Widget" database: > > ID SKU Price x Qty = Cost > 11 AAA $0.99 x 100 = $99 > 22 BBB $2.80 x 200 = $560 > 33 CCC $0.42 x 300 = $126 > 44 DDD $5.00 x 400 = $2000 > > So the AAA record "thinks" that the "This Record" value for Price is > $0.99, the BBB record "thinks" that the "This Record" value for Qty > is 200, the CCC record "thinks" that the "This Record" value for > Cost is $126, and (importantly) the DDD record "thinks" that the > "This Record" value for ID is 44. > > Now suppose you click on CCC to make it the current record. As you > would expect, it "thinks" that the "This Record" value for ID is 33. > It also "thinks" (accurately) that the "CURRENT Record" value for ID > is 33. > > But what do AAA, BBB, and DDD "think" is the "CURRENT Record" value > for ID? Danged if I can figure out how to compute this and > communicate it to them. > > Let me explain just briefly why I'm trying to figure this out. I've > got a database where the records are subsetted into categories. The > specifics don't matter. Let's say the database tracks "Widgets" and > some of the values in the "Category" field are "doohickeys", > "whatchamacallits", "thingamabobs", and "deelybobbers". I call up a > record for a Gold-Plated Framistan Type 2, which falls into the > category "framistans". A link of "Category" to itself enables me to > display a portal showing ALL the framistans in the file, one of > which is, of course, the Gold-Plated Framistan Type 2 that we're > currently looking at. > > What I want to do is display a yellow highlight behind the line in > the "framistans" portal on which the Gold-Plated Framistan Type 2 > appears. If I then page back to the previous record, for the > Platinum-Plated Framistan Type 1, I want THAT record to be > highlighted in the portal. > > How to do this? >
