Creating an Organized List

[akinen5]

Good Afternoon,
I am attempting to create an stock availability list off of my inventory. I have been able to create lists but the lists are unorganized.
The list needs to include the following and be able to generate on command:

• Count/Combine like inventory items based on two size measurements.
• Exclude items with no associated price.
• Exclude data not needed by customers.
• Display items in a logical organized manner

Thanks for the help!

[Techphan]

The list needs to include the following and be able to generate on command:

Count/Combine like inventory items based on two size measurements.

I am sure that many of us here will be happy to offer advice, but you will be doing the programming with a little guidance from the answers to your post(s). You will have to decide what works best for you.

You want to "Count/Combine like inventory based on two size measurements. We need a little more detail here. Are you dealing with men's shirts with a neck and sleeve length? Or lumber in a lumberyard? Or...? Are the number in numeric fields or textual data?

You can find records by two basic methods:
1) Two global fields (to store the two measurements) and a find script using the measurements placed in the global fields;
2) A portal with the two global fields "programmed" into the relationship between the two tables with a portal teasing out the child records that meet both of the requirements.
3) A count can be derived in either of the above methods.

Exclude items with no associated price.

Easy. Find all records with price field > 0.

Exclude data not needed by customers.

Very subjective on this one. Who makes this decision? Is a customer going to sort through your records and place a check in the box of any item they want to see?

Display items in a logical organized manner

This is the most subjective. What are you displaying? A list of items? Pictures? And, without intending to be offensive, one person's "logical and organized" may very well not be logical and organized to another person. This is up to you based upon what you want your employees or customers to see when using the database.

I think you will find FileMaker to be both extremely rewarding and also extremely frustrating. Welcome, and let us know how we can be of help along the way.

[akinen5]

This inventory will help track nursery stock (trees). Two measurements are the height of the tree, and the size of the tree trunk. When referring to information the customer does not need, company management is making that decision. It in only omitting one area, which is the physical location of the plant.