Community Videos, Tips, & Techniques, Articles.

Solution / : Email Invalidity Tester Description: Checks for invalidities in email address syntax and displays results in a calc field and an auto-enter calc field. The use of 2 different fields to display results is to provide the user with: a.) A warning that a syntax error has occurred (red text) b.) An explanation of the error in a Tooltip that helps the user fix the problem. Overview: If any of the syntax tests in the calculation fail, the result is an explanation of the syntax failure and is displayed in a Tooltip when you hold the mouse pointer/cursor over the email field. Tooltip doesn’t display if text in email field is not red. The e…

Solution / Tiki drink database / inventory / random drink Description: I made a drink database I did that for a luau we had for the holidays. It's in filemaker pro 7. Everything is straight forward, how to enter a new drink, how to manage your inventory, if you click on recipes it will give you drinks you can do with your inventory. If you click a Tiki God anywhere in the database you will get a random recipe. In there you have an inventory and drinks already there to make it more enjoyable. I hope you enjoy it. http://www.project-hyrule.com/cocktails3.fp7 Working Under: 7 Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Author(s): mar…

just another scripted tabs example scripted_tabs.fp7.zip

Solution / A simple, single file storage db Description: Still feature incomplete, I slapped this together to keep track of my Filemaker db files that I make to test out different techniques. There is a rudimentary versioning system, a large description field, a diff field for noting whatever changes are made between versions. Files are stored in a related table, and the most recently modified file record is sorted to the top, and positioned in the layout as an icon, right next to the description field. From here, it should be relatively easy for someone to add any features they feel like. I just thought I'd share this because may help some FM hobbyists f…

Description: You have Fields in your DATA table [tab]City [tab]State [tab]Zip You want to lookup the City and State based upon the data entered into the zip code. Set up the standard relationship... "data" table to your "city_state_lookup" table using the zip code as the match field. Now you want the inverse to trigger a lookup of the zip code or at least the first matching zip code based up on the city and state entered. Setup another table occurrence of your zip code table "zip_lookup" to your "data" table using the city and state fields as multi-predicate relationship. Then in your auto-enter calc field of the zip code field in yo…

Hi all friends Pre 8 it can't be made ! But with the new version, playing a little, we can push a button and never have a button again ! We couldn't see the "hand" anymore , neither the dark shadow. DimmedButton.zip

Hey, I wanted to integrate label printing with a Dymo label printer into my solutions for things like bar codes, address labels, shipping, badges, etc. But I found out that this was a real pain because you need to make special layouts, and switching between printers is a nightmare when Applescripting is not an option. So I dug around the Dymo site and found that they provide a software developers kit. I was able to build a command line interface to my Dymo printer. I can issue commands to it directly with the FM Send Message script step now. No additional layouts, no user intervention to switch printers, no plug ins. Attached is an FM demo file, the int…

[blurb] [color:red] The authors have been advised by FileMaker, Inc, that "FileMaker is planning a product update that allows FileMaker Server to continue to process most queries against unstored calculations, and thus addressing much of the current performance issue." [big]PERFORMANCE REGRESSION IN FILEMAKER® PRO 8.0V2 AN ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS[/big] By: Steven H. Blackwell, Management Counseling Services Deborah A. Fuchs, Aptworks Consulting Wim Decorte, Connecting Data The 8.0v2 updates to FileMaker® Pro 8 and FileMaker® Pro 8 Advanced contain a very significant, virtually unheralded, change to the operation of the pr…

I've successfully run FM 7 pro on linux with Wine. Quick installation Guide - Any linux distribution ( I've tested on Fedora 3 and Redhat 9 ) - Lastest Wine version ( Wine 0.9-2 ) During installation, you may find the field box for registration key is not long enough. Try ommit - on the registration key. If anyone needs help on installing please feel free to ask me.

Hi all friends a way to don't ! NoClose.zip

Hi all friends an utility BAR for your FileMaker. It needs S4U EventScript. MonthsBar.zip

I have been suffering with generating a report that will place data in the header if a subsummary goes across a page break while not duplicating the data in the subsummary if it occurs at the top of the page. Hope this points someone else in the right direction. Let me know if you have improvements. ReportTest.fp7.zip

This example shows a date-picker table that can pop up in a new window to allow graphical editing of a date. You can see it with FM7, but there are a few custom functions it uses you won't be able to look it.

Solution / Picturess7_PC Description: This is much like the Photo Catalog that came with FileMaker 7, in that it has a "contact sheet", using much the same technique for that (except I added going backwards). It also has a few different layouts to display the picture, depending on whether it's close to the layout size, or larger. It is designed more for referenced pictures, imported. It's not the end-all of catalogs. The reason it's called "PC" is because I stripped out a lot of AppleScripts, so everyone can use it, and so it's less complex. (P.S. I know Pictures only has 1 s. I have too many Pictures files :-) Working Under: 7 Solut…

Solution / Mayan Birthday Calculator Description: Now you can implement the Mayan Wavespell and find out the signs of all your contacts. Working Under: 8 Advanced Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Author(s): vierdewereld Date: 04/10/06 Credits: All Mayan researchers Instructions / Other Info: It's a start so. Your input for improvements are more then welcome. The longcount I got thanks to Mr. Comment: http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?fid/36/tid/175760/pid/201251/post/201251/#201251 Disclaimer: FM Forums does not endorse or warrantee these files are fit for any particular purpose. Do not post …

Hi all friends if you wish no ¶ into your text fields ! No__Allowed_.zip

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - MAR 23, 2006 WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES - VERSION 1.09 RELEASE Salt Lake City, UT--MARCH 23, 2006--David Kachel/Foundation Database Systems (formerly Codemasters Workshop) -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced the latest release, version 1.09 of their free WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES. WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES is a compilation of important advice not available elsewhere. No newcomer to FileMaker Pro should be without it. Updated and expanded from 79 to 86 topics, this white paper covers important subjects concerning the proper design of a database solution in FileMaker Pro and mistakes to be avoided. No…

This tutorial demonstrates how to generate a printed index for a printed report. (Attached there is an archive with the sample FileMaker 6.0 file PriceList.fp5 and the IndexMaker application [MacOs X] w/source code. The sample can be easily ported to higher versions of Filemaker.) Suppose you are a reseller and want to print, for your customers, a price list of the items you sell trought your store. For each item the following informations are provided: id, description, brand name and price. Open the PriceList.pdf file and run the script “Show Price List”: you can see it. It is ready for printing, sorted by brand. (For this sample it is populated with rand…

Description: What does this FileMaker demo file show ? Switching printers in OSX (I use 10.44 -10.3 should be ok) using AppleScript commands What can You use this for ? Always if You want Your FileMaker program to print on a specific printer or when You have more then one printer e.g. a Label printer in use. Using two printers to speedup printing or color and monochrome printing.... What is the problem in the first place ? OS X always marks the last used printer as the default printer. (: true?) FileMaker gives You the possibility to select a printer when You use the FileMaker Script step Print[], but when the Script is run it takes the default printe…

Got this tip from Mark (I didn't catch his last name) at a CAFDA (Chicago Area FM Developers Association) meeting this morning. (It may be Mac-specific; not sure you can "print" to a PDF from the Windows platform unless you have Acrobat Distiller or some other PDF Print driver installed.) Open a file in FMP 7 or 8. Open Scriptmaker (Command-Shift-S) Click on a script name, the Select All (Command-A) so that all the script names are highlighted. Click on the Print button. Don't actually print, but save as a PDF. Open the PDF (on a Mac that'll be in Preview, by default) and search for "Missing>". Any problems in your scripts with Repeat, searching f…

This is an attempt to create a calendar without having to use a large number of relationships/portals, or create a large number of placeholder records. The only records that get created are the ones for the actual events. This solution is unlocked, and I certainly welcome any feedback. Please email me at the address listed below. Here's a screenshot: Month View Some notes: 1) This is definitely a work-in-progress. I'm all for making this a robust, open-source solution. 2) Right now there is no GUI for adding/updating events, but there is a "Event List" button in month view. 3) When in month view, clicking on any day number will take you to day…

New version. Require FM8

Description: In answer to a question on another forum: I would like to have a calculation field that returns the rank (e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd or even just 1 2 3 etc...) of another field's contents with respect to all records (and for a group of records). It would seem that something simple as this would be built in, but apprently it's not. Using the Status(CurrentRecordNumber) won't really work as the records are sorted in a variety of other ways and not with repsect the field in which I would like the rank. I'd prefer to do it using a math formula. I've tried searching everywhere in FM documention and this and other forums without success. Here is t…

Good grief, what a name! The Field Factory? Well, I'm very excited about this so I want to make it available. If you care about conditional displays of background colors on a field - or displaying labels or messages over fields - AND you need these effects to happen on a per-field basis (based upon other calculations or conditions), read on ... There are many times when it would be nice for a field background to highlight, ie, User enters 'Contractor' in another field and you want a Commission field to turn blue; or you want the field label inside the field to save layout space (and unclutter the layout). Or maybe the Business wants a particular message over a fie…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - JAN 23, 2006 UNIVERSAL CAPITALIZER FOR FMP CUSTOM FUNCTION - VERSION 1.0v2 RELEASE Salt Lake City, UT--JANUARY 23, 2006--David Kachel/Codemasters Workshop -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced an update, version 1.0v2, of their free UNIVERSAL CAPITALIZER CUSTOM FUNCTION SET FOR FMP. This update fixes a minor bug that causes the professional title "D.D.S." to format improperly under some circumstances. It also adds a new override feature; the double-tilde (~~). The double-tilde will cause any text following it to appear in all caps. This is useful for such things as professional affiliations that are g…

Description: hello all, i use attached file to track (purchase and issue) stationary in our office. it also has a way of calculating on stock items. feel free to use, comment, or improve NOTE: this file is quite stripped down to what i needed in the office. for example, the included purchase order printout is never meant to actually go to a vendor. instead it is printed, given to someone to go and buy the stuff. mark the bought items and return to the printer. Working Under: 8 Advanced Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Author(s): overrider Date: 02/19/06 Credits: Instructions / Other Info: Disclaimer: …

I posted this originally in the FMPug forum. Figured now is a good time to post here too. ORLANDO, FL

Description: Hello, I am new to FM, but have found that i was not the only person looking to create a value list from items that are marked as "Active" or "in use" etc. I managed to make it work after reading several posts and a lot of trial and error. Here is my simple demo which i hope some of you may find helpful if you are trying to acheive the same thing. If a more experienced user sees a way to make it better, PLEASE feel free to post an updated demo! Cheers, and happy file making! Working Under: 7 Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Author(s) workinhard Date: 01/30/06 Credits: Instructions / Other Info: It should…

I think this is the easiest way to track last active TAB using Get ( CalculationRepetitionNumber ) calculation. No buttons, no additional tables, no scripting, no portals... TabScripting.fp7.zip

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - JAN 17, 2006 UNIVERSAL CAPITALIZER FOR FMP CUSTOM FUNCTION - VERSION 1.0v1 RELEASE Salt Lake City, UT--JANUARY 17, 2006--David Kachel/Codemasters Workshop -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced the first release, version 1.0v1, of their free UNIVERSAL CAPITALIZER CUSTOM FUNCTION SET FOR FMP. Following Codemasters Workshop's tradition of "we'll only do it if it's impossible", UNIVERSAL CAPITALIZER is a first-of-its-kind custom function set (3 interdependent custom functions) that finally solves the annoying problem of automatically capitalizing and correctly formatting name and address fields. Just ente…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - JAN 16, 2006 WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES - VERSION 1.08 RELEASE Salt Lake City, UT--JANUARY 16, 2006--David Kachel/Codemasters Workshop -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced the latest release, version 1.08 of their free WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES. WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES is a compilation of important advice not available elsewhere. No newcomer to FileMaker Pro should be without it. Updated and expanded from 73 to 79 topics, this white paper covers important subjects concerning the proper design of a database solution in FileMaker Pro and mistakes to be avoided. Now 70 pages long, it is a must-have fo…

First of all, let me just say, I created this because I'm not a huge fan of tabbed navigation. The new feature in 8 is nice, but I in no way think it should be used as your main navigation. I'll start by listing the top 2 things I dislike about tab Navigation. 1. Dynamically changing tab names, tab colors, which tabs show up depending on whos logged in, is a pain in the butt. 2. I work with clients who have no standard screen resolution (you probably do to). If you have too many tabs across the screen, they have to scroll over to see them. Its easier to scroll down, than to scroll over. So, I made a side navigation bar(a portal) that manages my us…

Is anyone aware of a POS application written in FileMaker? I'm looking for a simple Order Taking/Invoice screen that can handle multiple line items, tax them, total them up and when committed, sends a pick list/production order (could be a copy of the invoice to start) to a printer located in production. Regards, Russell Cox [email protected]

Every Color from RGB(0;0;0) To RGB(255;255;255) in RGB & Hex mod for Text & Containers Fields (Need Free Plug-In form 24U: 24U SimpleHighlight Plug-In http://www.24usoftware.com/SimpleHighlight ). Enjoy INO ColorPalette.fp7.zip

I am discovering - rather accidentally - that summary fields in version 7 can summarize child records, if placed on the parent table's layout. Even running total, placed in a portal, seems to work correctly (see attached demo). AFAIK, this is not a documented feature. If this could be relied upon to work consistently, a single summary field could replace many aggregate calc fields. Is there a way to get FMI's position on this? relatedSummaries.fp7.zip

[color:blue]Hello, This is my first post, so plese excuse if something is wrong. I've found it useful to timeout a loop if it is taking too long. Set Field [ Settings::gTime; Get (CurrentTime ) ] Loop Exit Loop If [GetAsTime ( Get ( CurrentTime) ) - GetAsTime ( Settings::gTime ) > 3 Exit Loop If [ ... ] ... Do what ever here ... End Loop I assume you can have multiple exits of a loop as long as one is met. Which is what I have. I have set it to exit after 3 seconds. Thanks and God Bless! David Garza

So I find that it's possible to define a default TAB for a control panel... Look here for an explanation and an example file !

...so what you later paste lacks style. Alright the easy answer is to let the user grap either a <> formatted or a calc'field instead of real data, and prevent IWP from going into edit mode. But what if the text is lenghty and requires a scrollbar attached to the field? Well a portal without outlines, with a box around as frame can make the illusion perfect, since we are making a list of mergefields appear in an invisible portal are we forcing the cgi to make coherent html/css, as long as we have no texts appearing on either side of the portal are we in the clear to mark excerpts of the text show splitted up in lineslices, for further pasting in RTF. …

Using Applescript, you are able to use the "do script" command. However, you are unable to pass parameters into the command from Applescript. Below I have listed a work-around for this. Please note it requires a plug-in which can trigger scripts from a field calculation. I use the free zippscript. You can get it from http://homepage.mac.com/jkornhaus/ First, Create these Global Fields in your FileMaker solution: ApplescriptScriptName ApplescriptScriptParameter ApplescriptScriptAction Next, create a layout in your solution with only the above 3 fields on it. For now, we'll call the layout name "ApplescriptGlobals" Next, create these Scripts in yo…

Description: Use Script Variables inside of File References to automate storing of files in your FileMaker solution. A user can type a name, or part of the name of a file, and using a Script Variable, you can fill in the rest, including the path to the file, part of the name, or extension. A Reference to the file is stored in FileMaker. This technique could be useful in a Document Management solution using FileMaker, allowing users to just type a limited about, and FileMaker will do the rest, instead of the user manually selecting the file to insert each time. Working Under: 8 Advanced Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Author(s) gol…

Sorry if this is already out there: Just noticed that a double pipe || in a text box field display, i.e.: <<||>> yields the current user name. Comments?

I made a post about Opener files in the "Articles Tips Tricks and Techniques" form some time ago. The explanation and subsequent discussion is still relevant and can be found here. This post contains a sample Opener file for FMP 7 that I've used for some time now and have found robust and reliable. it has no password so feel free to use and learn from it. Version: v7.x Platform: Mac OS X Jaguar Opener.zip

Description: Look up a U.S., Canadian, or U.S. associated island by area code to retrieve the relationship to the state/province and major areas/cities. The data in this set of records is obtained from the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), otherwise known as the administration that creates and assigns area codes to different areas. Check out www.nanpa.com for more info on that. It can be used as a tool for different types of database users. As a advertising sales company, this tool can be beneficial for a contact who has a seperate office. Some contacts I run into have different area codes within different offices which are sometimes out of state. When I make ca…

Description: Allows you to populate your global container fields from a table of artwork while your solution is hosted. Global fields in general are only set when in single user mode. But when hosted you cannot change the default value of the container field and have it save and affect changes to all users. This solution will set the your global container fields to the contents of your artwork data table. Working Under: 8 Advanced Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Author(s): Ocean West Date: 12/15/05 Credits: Instructions / Other Info: Disclaimer: FM Forums does not endorse or warrantee these files are …

Attached is an implementation of a progress bar using FM7's repeating field calcs. This can be used if you have a slow maintenance script or opener script, and you want to give impatient users something to look at. ProgressBar.fp7.zip

Description: This is one way of managing and opening windows and their individual settings. (The FM windows, not the OS). It's not pretty, but it'll give you the idea behind it. Basically, it uses script parameters and a separate table to hold all of the info needed to open a specific window. Please let me know what you think of this. Working Under: 8 Advanced Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Author(s): BrentHedden Date: 12/12/05 Credits: Instructions / Other Info: Disclaimer: FM Forums does not endorse or warrantee these files are fit for any particular purpose. Do not post or distribute files without wri…

I discovered this trick by accident when I saw that a merge field was displaying a simple number field as a percent. Here is how to format the numeric merge field: Go to Layout mode. Do not select an object. Choose Number from the Format menu and define the desired format for the numeric merge field, such as currency or percent. Now select Merge from the Insert menu or use the Text tool to type in the merge field. Change to Browse mode and the merge field is formatted as desired! Remember to reset the Number format to the default you normally want, such as General or Leave Data Formatted As Entered. I confirmed that this merge field formatting tri…

Attached here is the fifth article in the Better*FileMaker*Developer learning series - all articles available at http://bfmd.net So, what BFMD_2003_03.zip

I started working on an older project after many weeks "rest". I decided to run a DDR and wanted to clean up the whole project a little before I continued working. It is quite complex and in a half finished state with many changes. Well looked through the HTML version of the report and found quite a few Table OC that where not used in any script or layout ... So I deleted them one after the other and cleaned the whole Relational graph nicely up. I was so happy to streamlined everything before I start again ! Took me ONLY 10 hours repair work ( lucky I had some backup files ) I Lost my whole navigation and many other script steps ! …

Herein, I describe a technique for creating a summary report that uses relationships instead of summary fields. I came up with this myself, but I'm sure it's been invented before. Comments appreciated. Scenario: You have a student database for a large school system. One table contains a list of student registrations (student, name, campus, class, etc.) You want to summarize the # of students at each campus, perhaps also summarizing by some sub-categories (gender). Traditional Method: Most folks familiar with FileMaker would approach this by first creating a summary field: sCount = Count(StudentID, sorted by Campus). Then you make a layout with a su…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - DEC 6, 2005 WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES - CONTEST WINNER Salt Lake City, UT--DECEMBER 6, 2005--David Kachel/Codemasters Workshop -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced the winner of their WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES quote contest. We are happy to announce that we have a winner in the 'contest' we announced just yesterday, Dec. 5th 2005, with the release of the latest update to our free "White Paper for FMP Novices" download. The White Paper contained a quote, "Get the big idea and the rest will follow", and offered a free copy of our popular AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro development tool to the first pers…

For detailed info on file corruption , see: New York FileMaker Developers Group ... Serious Concerns http://masdevelopment.com:3455/1/57

Hi, I posted an earlier version of this to the sights and sounds forum a few days ago, and Detlev suggested that I post it here too. I've added another example to the original file. To sum up: Layout 1 -- a thermometer style graph that shows progress toward a goal (which was in my first post. I fixed a small glitch.) Layout 2 -- a progress bar that show progress through a long script The progress-bar-thing seems to be a topic that comes up a lot. This is my solution to the problem of there being no progress bar in the windows version of FM. Thanks for any comments. If you're interested in colors other than red, I'll send you the source gr…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - DEC 5, 2005 WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES - VERSION 1.07 RELEASE + A SURPRISE Salt Lake City, UT--DECEMBER 5, 2005--David Kachel/Codemasters Workshop -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced the latest release, version 1.07 of their free WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES. WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES is a compilation of important advice not available elsewhere. No newcomer to FileMaker Pro should be without it. Updated and expanded from 70 to 73 topics, this white paper covers important subjects concerning the proper design of a database solution in FileMaker Pro and mistakes to be avoided. Now 65 pages long, it is a …

Description: To reduce the number of hours spent doing sudoku puzzles, here is a basic helper file. It will keep track of the possbile numbers a cell can be. It is crude, but works -- would love to see one that uses stored procedures or those cool calculation modules. You need to color the numbers yourself, to back out your guesses; I use black for ones that I know for sure & red for guesses and the ensuing stream of dependencies. I wanted a script to clear only red numbers, but could not find a text format "tester" script step. Any help? Working Under: Dev 7 Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Author(s): zincb Date: 12/…

Hi all friends it seems that FMI has introduced something like an EVENT (on exit) into FM8; it can fire a script without a plugin ... Not so good as EventScript but it is a new thing ! See attachment FireScript.zip

If your development style is anything like mine, you probably reuse and/or copy layouts and graphic objects when you're building a solution. This practice can be a huge time-saver but it's not without pitfalls...one of which can be leaving button objects, especially invisible ones, in layouts where they're not intended. In FM 8 there's a neat little method for finding those unwanted buttons, even when they're stacked under other buttons of the same size (you know, the ones that drive you crazy because you can't figure out why your button is not doing what you want it to do when you click it). In Layout Mode, in the menu bar, go to Layouts > Set Tab Order... If y…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - NOV 14, 2005 WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES - VERSION 1.06 RELEASE Salt Lake City, UT--NOVEMBER 14, 2005--David Kachel/Codemasters Workshop -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced the latest release, version 1.06 of their free WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES. WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES is a compilation of important advice not available anywhere else. No newcomer to FileMaker Pro should be without it. Updated and expanded from 60 to 70 topics, this white paper covers important subjects concerning the proper design of a database solution in FileMaker Pro and mistakes to be avoided. Now 58 pages long, it is a must-ha…

Problem: I have a database shared over the network. Each time people want to use it, they have to either use the hosts button in the Open dialog box, or they login to the network volume on the server and double-click on the file's icon. Is there an easier way for people to use the shared database? Answer: Yes, there is a better way. Accessing shared databases by clicking on file icons is a particularly inefficient way of sharing databases. Instead, many people provide "opener files" that make the process easy and efficient. An opener file is a small database whose sole task is to connect into the server, open the desired shared database, then close itself quietly. …

I posted this to the Developer's Forum. Should have posted it here, I guess. I'm still new to this forum!! Anyway.. There are probably lots of good calendar/scheduler db samples out there that don't need plug-ins, but I couldn't find any, so I developed my own, to integrate with an application I hope to distribute. Probably not the most sophisticated code, but it works pretty good! It's still under development, so it may not be 100% error-free; also I keep fiddling with it to make it more robust. If it can help someone else trying to get a good scheduler started as open source, feel free to use it as you will. Suggestions, comments, improvements are we…

This is a neat one: I like to show users what a form looks like in Preview Mode before printing it. But if you have more than one record in your found set when you go into Preview Mode, it always shows the first record, even if your Print options are set to only print the current record. This can be confusing for users when they see a different record shown than what they want to print. This example previews the correct record by omitting the other records and then returns to the correct found set after. FileMaker Version: 5 Platform: Mac OS X Panther Preview.zip

I am fairly new to Filemaker and come from a relational database background. Working with an old data set strewn with errors, I came upon a set of 300+ records out of 2000 that were duplicates of some sort. I set out to delete those records, but quickly saw some hurdles... I found this post on how to delete duplicates: http://www.afilemakeraffliction.com/list/howto/afa1095.html I didn't really feel like implementing as he did to delete the duplicates, so I fudged this solution. For the sake of simplicity say you have 1 field: id, in a file called Foo. 1. Create a self-relationship with 'id'. 2. Create a calculation field '_count_dupes' that does this Cou…

Description: Task calendar for employees is a solution for employer to assign different tasks to there employees and employee login to system can view there task. Features: · Login as a employee will show the tasks of that employee only with all read-only access. · Employee can change their password. · Clicking on a date selects the date. The selected date's tasks can found in right-top of the calendar. · Below it today's task can be found. · The tasks of the respective date is shown below that date. · By clicking "go to today" the calendar selects today. · For details about the task can be found by clicking "Day" Tab. · Today's date is highlighted by…

Description: This is an example of a calculated field that retrieves the text style of a text field and converts it to rtf tagged text which can be exported to MS word or another rtf compatible application. Working Under: 7 Solution Status: Finished Pre-requisites: Author(s) BobWeaver Date: 11/04/05 Credits: Instructions / Other Info: Disclaimer: FM Forums does not endorse or warrantee these files are fit for any particular purpose. Do not post or distribute files without written approval from the copyright owner. All files are deemed public domain unless otherwise indictated. Please backup every file that you intend to…

This post is about using container fields to store a reference to a file rather than storing the whole file in Filemaker and how to automate the storage process on a Mac. I may be exceptionally dense but it has taken me a long time to come to grips with this issue and other novice programmers may be in the same situation as I was. I searched posts on this (and ancestor) sites unsuccessfully and found Filemaker literature unhelpful. In fact the process is very simple. I wanted to create a document storage system where a clients word documents could be accessed using Filemaker. In my case the files were created using MS Word but it might equally have be…

I recently installed FileMaker 8 on a network where the network admin refused to install service pack 2 for XP due to compatibility reasons for other software. The FM 8 installer detects the version of XP and refuses to install on XP without SP2. In case anyone else comes across this issue I thought I would just post the 2 ways I got around it. 1) Install SP2 from Microsoft, then install FileMaker 8. Then, simply uninstall SP2. FileMaker 8 seems to work properly (although it may have unkown ramifications, but it seems ok so far) 2) To avoid having to install SP2 on every computer I exported the FileMaker registry settings under HKLM and HKCU and then copied …

We needed to force users to click a "done" button on a window before they could move on for more data entry so we used this technique for creating modal windows: note: this is used for data entry when a new record is being created Create a field called "modalWindowValidation". On the validaion tab for the field, select "Not empty", and "Display custom message if validation fails". In the box for custom validaion message put "You must select the 'done' button before you can move on". Then, in your scripts at the appropriate point, create a new window, go the the appropriate layout, and create a new record, then pause the script. The user can enter their d…

(Sorry, I originally put this in the wrong forum. Now it is correct.) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OCT 24, 2005 DATABASE DESIGN FOR FMP - VERSION 1.01 RELEASE Salt Lake City, UT--OCTOBER 24, 2005--David Kachel/Codemasters Workshop -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced the first release, version 1.01 of their free DATABASE DESIGN FOR FMP guide. DATABASE DESIGN FOR FMP is a set of instructions for designing FileMaker Pro™ databases. Every book on FileMaker tells you that you should design your solution before you begin to build it, but newcomers never do because none of those books tell you HOW to design your solution! Now you can…

FileMaker doesn't offer a checkbox that actually holds a check...instead it puts an x in the box. FM7 & above's text formatting feature allows users to enter a real check into a field. Personally, I find the appearance of colored checks (especially in lists) more graphically appealing than just "Yes" or "No" text values. I hope someone finds this helpful. RealCheck.zip

This sample is the result of a question posed in another thread. The requirement was to execute a Google search from a Filemaker database and insert the results (html source) into a text field. This example uses a small java application which is executed via Perform Applescript (Mac) or Send Message (Windows) script step. The web page is downloaded into a text file which is then imported into the database. No web browser is required. I tested it with FM6 running on OSX 10.3. Since I don't have a Windows computer, I was not able to configure the Send Message script step. However, I have provided instructions for doing this. GrabWebPage.zip

Hi I read a question in another forum (in my native language) ...that really made me wonder why there isn't provided for it in the tools at hand when importing new records into a solution. You might buy a wagonload of not normalized addresses for a mailing campain, but some of the data already exists in your current system, which obviously is normalized to the marrow of the bone. How would you bring your database up to sync normalized, which just migt be adding a few more contacts to a company?? Well de-duping via a selfjoin is common practice, but how would add to a related tables data if it's a dupe?? Now here comes the new GetNthRecord( function in handy…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OCT 13, 2005 DEVELOPER STORAGE FOR FILEMAKER DEVELOPERS - VERSION 1.01 RELEASE Salt Lake City, UT--OCTOBER 13, 2005--David Kachel/Codemasters Workshop -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced the first release, version 1.01 of their free DEVELOPER STORAGE DATABASE FOR FMP DEVELOPERS. DEVELOPER STORAGE is the result of requests made by readers of our free download "White Paper for FMP Novices" (latest version of the white paper also made available today). Store all of your FileMaker tips and techniques (along with their demo files), frequently used calculations, functions, value lists, graphics and passwo…

I came up with this as a possible structure for the Supervisor-Supervisee part of an Employee database. I wanted to account for the situation where any of an employee's line supervisors (up the organizational tree) could be seen from the current employee. This allows you to create security rules based on all of an employee's line supervisors, rather than just the immediate supervisor. See attachment. EmployeeTree.fp7.zip

Description: Window shearing (manipulation) No fields ... no nothings ... only a few buttons and one script Enjoy ZagIno Working Under: 7 Solution Status: Finished Pre-requisites: Author(s): ino Date: 10/17/05 Credits: Instructions / Other Info: For early afternoon ... Disclaimer: FM Forums does not endorse or warrantee these files are fit for any particular purpose. Do not post or distribute files without written approval from the copyright owner. All files are deemed public domain unless otherwise indictated. Please backup every file that you intend to modify. WidowSharing.zip

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OCT 13, 2005 WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES - VERSION 1.05 RELEASE Salt Lake City, UT--OCTOBER 13, 2005--David Kachel/Codemasters Workshop -- publishers of AutoNavigator for FileMaker Pro--Today announced the latest release, version 1.05 of their free WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES. WHITE PAPER FOR FMP NOVICES is a compilation of important advice not available anywhere else. No newcomer to FileMaker Pro should be without it. Updated and expanded from 52 to 60 topics, this white paper covers important subjects concerning the proper design of a database solution in FileMaker Pro and mistakes to be avoided. It is a must-have for any FileMaker…

This forum is for "Articles" or "Techniques" not for general questions, please use the search feature to see if your post has been previously answered. If not select another forum to post your question. If you have a tip or technique that will save others time you may use this forum to post your tip or solution, you may include sample files or screen shots to aid in explanation of your article. Thank you FM Forums Staff

The idea for this style of auto-enter calculations came from a post by Queue in late June or early July which I cannot now locate on the Forums. His post was regarding two-way conversion between inches and centimetres I have Invoice line-items with three currency fields: Net, Tax, Gross and a variable TaxRate field. Initially I want to Auto-enter the Quoted amount into Net and then calculate the other fields with a default tax rate which is Auto-entered as Data (0.175 = Standard rate of VAT in the UK). Then I want to be able to change the amounts for various reasons (a customer negotiates a Gross amount for the job rather than Net + Tax; Some jobs have non-standar…

You'd think that there would have been a built-in function to trim white space characters (<space>, <tab>, <CR>) from the beginning and end of a text string, but the Trim() function only trims spaces. The following formula will trim off all white space characters from the beginning and end of a text string, but leave any embedded ones intact. Let([t=InputText; tab=" "; //The literal contains a tab character L=Left(t;Position(t;LeftWords(t;1);1;1)-1); L1=Substitute("x"&L;[" ";"s"];[

In your tables tab, you can create a tab called "-" and move it between some of your tables. It functions just like the layout "-" or the script "-", it works as a separator. I'm currently working on a file with close to 20 tables, and this makes it so much easier when i'm in the Define Fields tab. Anyhow, knew you could do this with scripts and with layouts, but just found this one out. Might be helpful if your working with numerous tables.

Attached is a nutrition database I developed to track daily intake. Though it is not 100% complete it is useful and provides info on over 6900 foods. This is my second Filemaker app so sugesstions for improvements welcome. I used the USDA SR-17 database for the nutritional info (free). I zipped it with a free utility at http://www.7-zip.org/ as WinZip or the Windows Zip utilty would not compress it enough. Hope it opens and that some of you find it useful. When finished it will track about 30 nutrients. Toffler Nutrients.zip

Setting the FM language under MacOS X has been weird in FP 7- FP would use the MacOS language unless you removed this language explicitly via the Info panel (open Info panel on FileMaker Developer.app, open "languages" section, un-check MacOS language, leave only English checked if English is the language you wanted to use). However, in FM 8/Tiger even this does not work anymore because you cannot un-check the MacOS language, it is [color:gray]greyed out. So what do you do if you have a German MacOS but want to develop FM solutions in English? As it turns out, it is rather easy: Close FM 8 if ot is running Navigate to Applications folder/FileMaker Pro Advanc…

Hi all friends more space between TABS... (and a way to see only the TABS) Labels.zip

Description: Especially for simulating graphics: I have actually used this in charting application: it is now really practical to use RF's to to simulate dynamic graphics - to bit level full color if needed, Also the GetNth function makes it very easy to move data from records into global repeating fields and do math on it. Attached is an example that calcs and plots a best fit regression line on top of a scatter plot. Working Under: 8 Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Author(s) Oliver Reid Date: 09/09/05 Credits: Oliver Reid Instructions / Other Info: Disclaimer: FM Forums does not endorse or wa…

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Has anyone sucessfully converted the infamous "The Works" application into FMP 7? (See this posting to find out about "The Works": [url="http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=74935&an=0&page=0#74935"]http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=74935&an=0&page=0#74935 ) I've followed FMP conversion protocol (converted sub-folders first, then main folders into version 7; read the author Kennedy's notes on how to open the files with the master passwords etc. I even gotten into some of the scripts and changed the hard coded file names from xxxxx.fp5 to xxxxx.fp7. BUT I still really haven't been able to "take cont…

Description: Ok I stumbled across this concept, not sure the implication but none the less enjoy : With a script I am able to set fields indirectly using the variables, let & evaluate. Working Under: 8 Advance Solution Status: Finished Pre-requisites: Author(s): Ocean West Date: 09/02/05 Credits: Instructions / Other Info: FIELDS ======= ModifyStamp[tab]timestamp[tab]modification timestamp RecID[tab][tab]Text[tab]Auto-Enter Serial FIeldA[tab][tab]Text[tab]Auto-Enter Calculation, Replace Existing Value, Evaluate Always "Evaluate ( Quote($$a) ; RecID)" FIeldB[tab][tab]Text[tab]Auto-Enter Calculati…

The attached is an example of a launcher or "opener" file that you can use to open hosted files. It includes two sample files to test launching. It includes a table of FileMaker errors so your users can get a more intelligible message when there's a problem -- try changing the file references to see an error message. Also includes some preferences for automatic launching, some simple script parameter usage and a couple of FileMaker 7 stupid window tricks. It's open and unlocked. I hope it proves useful to someone. Please report any problems or suggestions. fancylauncher.zip

Description: Here's a demo of a technique to use FM8's new GetNthRecord() function to produce a navigation list showing the previous/current/next records. It still uses self-join relationships to show the actual data, but the parent keys are generated on the fly using the GetNthRecord() function. This allows users to use the status bar to change records, and the navigation list will still update correctly. Unlike a portal, this technique keeps the navigation list in the order of the found set. Also, the navigation list is only showing records from the found set. Working Under: 8 Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: FM8 Author(s): Ender …

It appears that "idle time" may not mean what we think it does. Using FMP6 on my local Windows XP PC, set to save changes to disk during idle time, I observed data loss under conditions which FileMaker claims should not cause data loss. With a file open, I ran through several trials of 1. entering data, 2. performing some action, and 3. killing the file through task manager. I found that when step 2 was one of the following actions, my data was saved: Switching layouts Defining fields However, the following actions in step 2 resulted in data loss (the data I entered was not there when I re-opened after crashing) Pausing for up to 60…

Description: Description of my soluition Working Under: Dev 7 Solution Status: Beta Pre-requisites: Some plugin Author(s): Ocean West Date: 08/18/05 Credits: so and so Instructions / Other Info: How it works and and how to fix. Disclaimer: FM Forums does not endorse or warrantee these files fit for any particular purpose. Do not post or distribute files without written approval from the copyright owner. All files are deemed public domain unless otherwise indictated. Please backup every file that you intend to modify.

This is an example how You can manipilate with date field in Browse mode. This example uses a one date global field, few buttons with script parametar and only one script.[color:red][color:red] Happy Filemakering... :) DateScroll.fp7.zip Picture_DataScroll.png.zip

This is an example of sorting and double clicking to select an item from a list. This example uses a few custom functions so in order to see these you need Developer. These functions provide a means to use two display fields on the layout for displaying multiple columns. The display effect is achieved by stacking the two fields and then using the next repetition for each column. List_Select.fp7.zip

In non-Filemaker programming frequently the programmer will want to skip a whole section of code. This is normally done be entering an opening comment before the block of code and an ending comment after the block. In effect, this turns the whole chunk of commands into a comment. This method, normally called "commenting out", is not available within Scriptmaker but there is another way easily skip a whole section of a script. You simply surround the section to be skipped with an IF statement that always validates false. Example: If [1=2] Set Field [Table::Field; "This is the section"] Set Field [Table::Field; "of script steps"] Set Field [Tabl…

I started filemaker at version 7, so I never had the pains that some of you had durring previous versions. Here is one of the first things I built in Filemaker 7. You'll notice I was fairly new, I used nested IF statements rather than case, little things like that. Anyhow, I thought this was neat, leave me some feeback on it if you will. You can choose any month, and any date, up to the year 4000, and the calander will display correctly, just like your computer calander. Currently, I have this related to a separate database that makes the dates turn red if something is scheduled for that day. Take a look, tell me what you think. *Edit forgot to tell you…

HI all, It has been a while since I posted anything of merit - been busy catching up to FM7, and lots of fun stuff to learn. My first big thrill was taking advantage of script parameters and new repeating field functions in building a single multi-level tabbed interface and navigation script that does not need ANY modification from layout to layout, just paste it in or duplicate and rename a layout. The above example is rough, but I think the guts are very smooth. I did not include any data fields in the layouts or DB, but that can be done easily. On implementation, I would probably break this into several files along the separation model idea, but the principle…

[ EDIT: please see latest attachment post ] I've been fretting over building a search mechanism that allows me to search every table in a tree of tables in the relationships graph. Finally, I've got that functionality. The attached file demonstrates it and allows easy alteration to work on any tree / results from any table. I'm posting this not because it provides some superior functionality, but because it was so darn hard to figure out how to accomplish ... its a rather large set of layouts, tables, scripts, ... various components that work together to provide a simple means of generalizing the search functionality. googlSearch.v2.zip

or the undocumented feature of portals (They Have Memory). Hi to all friends I discovered something that is so beautiful, that I named it the TOP TIP. As my English isn't so good, please see the attached example. It is wroten in Italian* language, but sure you'll be able to understand and to translate.* Please note that for the forth example you'll need the CalSnap by Brian Dunning This attachment is .fp7, but you can download an .fp5 file in the nineth post ! * or you can look the attachment of the forth post for an English (?) version ;-) TopTip.zip

Attached is a zipped folder containing two FM7 files. They demonstrate a method of generating a value list, e.g. for popups, which is generated from two input fields rather than just one. In the first example the two fields are in a single table and the second example the input fields are from two tables related to a third. In these examples only related records are used but this can be changed to display all of the values one or both of the fields, and more complex relationships can be used. Here's a link to the forum thread . P.S. Thanks to aaa for pointing out this method. TwoFieldVL.zip

Since this issue comes up regularly... Here is a set of sample files that allows you to do date and duration calculations accounting for non-working days (weekends and holidays). There are 3 files: Schedule.fp5 is the main file which does the example calculations. Holidays.fp5 contains a user-entered list of holidays. Workdays.fp5 contains a script-generated list of workdays which excludes Saturday, Sunday and any dates in the Holiday file. The whole thing is fairly simple, so you can snoop through it to see how it all works. If anything is unclear, feel free to post your questions/bug reports. PS. I should just add that the Workdays file con…

I was recently asked to provide a calculation that can subtract a number of working days from a given date. The opposite solution is quite similar, so I thought I might as well post the calculations for the benefit of others. Note that these calculations assume a weekend date will not be entered as either dateStart or dateEnd. Add Working Days: dateStart + numDays + 2 * Div( numDays; 5 ) + 2 * (DayOfWeek(dateStart) > 6 - Mod( numDays; 5 )) Subtract Working Days: dateEnd - numDays - 2 * Div( numDays; 5 ) - 2 * (DayOfWeek(dateEnd) <= Mod( numDays; 5 ) + 1) For lower versions, use Int(numDays / 5) in place of Div( numDays; 5 ).