13.1. Advanced Relationships

A portal on a layout makes creating related records as simple as entering data (Section 4.3.4). But another common use is to help your users avoid performing a find. Finds are relatively easy, but it can mean switching modes and layouts, especially when finding related records. So in addition to the relationships you create that act as your ER diagram (Section 5.2.3), you'll also want to create relationships and portals that show specific related records. Then, when you add buttons or scripts that use a Go To Related Record step (Section 5.5.3) to those layouts, users won't need to enter Find mode as often to see the data they need.

13.1.1. Self-Join Relationships

The Invoices layout of the Invoice.fp7 database has a Line Items portal and a second Payments portal. You can get a better picture of a Job's total costs by creating third portal that shows all the other invoices related to the current invoice's job. Sure, there's already such a portal on the Job layout, but if you're researching the way a particular job was billed, a button on a new portal could move you through a Job's invoice records, without needing to go back to the Jobs layout to get to the next invoice.