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Creating portals to display related records

A portal is a layout object that displays records from related tables. Use a portal only when you want to display data from more than one related record. Portals display data from related fields in rows, one record in each row. For more details on when to use portals, see Deciding where to place related fields.

To create a portal:

1.	In Layout mode, click the Portal tool in the status toolbar.

2.	Position the crosshair pointer on the layout where you want the portal to begin, then drag the pointer diagonally until the portal is the size you want.

3.	In the Portal Setup dialog box, for Show related records from, choose the related table from which you want to display related records.

You can also choose Manage Database to create a new table or relationship.

4.	Select record options for the portal.

 

To	Select
Sort the records in the portal	Sort portal records, and click Specify. In the Sort dialog box, choose the fields by which to sort the portal records, and click OK.
Filter the records in the portal	Filter portal records, and click Specify. In the Specify Calculation dialog box, define a formula for a calculation to filter the portal records, and click OK.
Allow related records to be deleted from the related table (in Browse mode)	Allow deletion of portal records
Display a scroll bar at the right side of the portal, with which users can see (and enter) more records than are visible in the portal at one time	Show vertical scroll bar
Reset the scroll bar to display the portal’s first record when you exit the current record	Reset scroll bar when exiting record (or, clear this option so the scroll bar does not reset)

5.	Select format options for the portal.

 

To	Do this
Specify the initial related record to display in the first row of the portal	In the Initial row box, type the row number.
Specify the number of rows (records) to display in the portal	For Number of rows, type a number.
Change the fill (color) of a portal, display a different background in alternating portal rows (for contrast and easy identification), or display a different background color for the selected portal row	See Formatting portals.

6.

Click OK.

7.	In the Add Fields to Portal dialog box, choose the fields that you want to appear in the portal, and click OK.

Tip  You can drag objects, such as a related field, onto the first row of an existing portal to add it to the portal.