Create related records from a field above a portal
Two easy techniques to improve user experience
If a user wants to easily create related records, a portal based on a relationship set to allow creation is obviously appropriate.
Nevertheless, this built-in technique has some cons:
the user needs to scroll to the first empty row before being able to create new records.
he must know that only the first empty row allows creation.
some interface elements are displayed on this empty row, while they make no sense (i.e. a deletion button, useless because there is yet no related record to delete)
This sample file presents two easy techniques that allow creation from a field placed above the portal.
The first one, the easiest as well, has been available since FileMaker 7 (although the auto enter calculation would require a little adaptation, because it’s making use of Self function, a FileMaker 9 feature)
The second one uses filtered portals, a FileMaker 11 feature.
