I mean, how do all the files relate. For instance, there are all those Green Appointments tables connected to the Blue Daily and Month tables but they all seem to have the same fields.

At the top there is a Green table named Appointments. How does that relate to all the other Green tables that relate to the Daily and Monthly tables.

I would like to get data from two files I have which are related to each other: A service call file, which has date,time and service info fields and a customer file which has names, addresses, and phone numbers etc. I would imagine they would somehow replace or pass their field info to the Green appointments table, right?

I have the step by step instructions but I really don't have a clear understanding of how it all goes together and works. I think that would help me.

Thanks

H there,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you; I was away over the weekend.

So I can suggest a couple things...

- Those green boxes on the relationship graph are Table Occurrences, and they all have the same fields because they are different instances of the same table: they have different *relationships* to the the table occurrence (abbreviated TO)"CalendarMonth".

- To understand how that works to draw a month view, you'll see that each TO has a relationship that is true for one day. 7 of those give us a week: each portal on the month view is from one of those TOs. Then we have size records on the month interface, each representing a different week.

- For more on how these TOs actually work to show records, check out the whole topic of relationships in FileMaker's own training book. It's kind of dry, but a very good treatment of the topic.

- Our step-by-step instructions are the best writing we have on how to get this going with your own files. Read these again after diving into some of that book on how relationships work. You'd follow those instructions to swap out our appointments table for your Service Call table.

- You'll notice that our instructions don't talk about linking a customer file. In the free calendar you'd be best showing your customer information IN your service call table: perhaps with a calc there that shows the call's customer and their phone number. You could then show that service call field in the calendar.

- Showing customer information directly in the calendar is built into our Pro calendars. Showing it in free requires stitching a TO for your customer table on to CalDailyAppointments; something you may be able to do after you've read up on this stuff. Integrating Pro is a bit more complicated and based in what you've asked here, I'd suggest working through the free calendar first if you want to learn more about how FileMaker works, or asking someone to help you integrate Pro. (We do that, of course, but almost any FileMaker developer you'd close to would be able to as well.)

Hope that helps,

John

Thanks, that does help. One thing I need to get my head around is the TO concept. I'll check the FM docs but you've pointed me in the right direction.

Thanks again,
Rock