Community Videos, Tips, & Techniques, Articles.

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…

If you

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 ).

[color:"red"]"The Works" Multi-File Template Keywords: aqua look, dual-tab bar with status area, audit log / trail, user login, passwords, privileges, print preview control panel, multi-column sort, quick help, generic notes, startup / shutdown scripts, import script examples, relational examples, and more. From the About for this template... Description This, [color:"red"] Works08.zip

Ted's suggestion about skipping steps in a script put me in mind of another script-related trick I use. In a file with hundreds or even thousands of scripts, it can be cumbersome to test the script, then go back to ScriptMaker, then scroll down until you find the script in question. ("Was the scroll bar 35% of the way down the screen or 40%?") When I am doing repeated tests and modifications on a script, I will often change the name of the script so that it starts with QWE or some easy-to-type combo. Then, to get back to the script quickly, I just select the first script and type QWE to quick-jump to the script I need, with none of that time-consuming scrolling busin…

Found these around the net... if any are needing solution for creating installer of their shrink wrap solution or demos. Please add or make comment on your success with these products http://www.thraexsoftware.com/ http://www.mindvision.com/ http://www.esellerate.net/ http://www.zerog.com/ http://www.installfactory.com/ (which has some FileMaker anti-piracy tech)

Attached is a fairly simple way to search for people by age using multikey relationships. I needed a way to do this in an application I am working on as my users will not be bright enough to work out the dates themselves. Originally I simply multiplied the age number by 365.24 and subtracted from the date but was not entirely happy with the results. The tricky part was working around leap years and different system settings. The attached calculations should work regardless of the system setings and occurances of Feb 29. If the multikey is required to fall on Feb 29 for a year that has no leap year it is changed to Feb 28. The calculation is designed to find real peop…

On another Forum the other day, a member asked if there was a way to dynamically get a list of related records in a repeating fields, without any script. This idea got me a bit excited, and I tried to find a way through this, just to see how FM7 helped to solve the case. So the goal was to have a 12 repeating field filled with the 12 months sales results for a given selected year. Note that this is part of a set of 3 files I'm building, the 2 others using scripts would be posted later, but you can get the picture with this one. Ah...forgot to say. There's a charting tip here for those interrested. Happy FileMaking RelInRepsCalc.zip

Ive posted this as an example before however was fmp7 file, below is the process for those not using fmp7. I dont know wether you can do the same though. There is a way to open embedded container files via a script. 1. Set up a calculation field that obtains the file name oembedded in the container. (Text field = container field) 2.Set up a text field with a calc as follows "REN" & " " & "C:temp.txt" & " " & "C:"& the file name field (see above) Complicated bit. Create a script that Omits Record Show Omitted Only Export Field (the container field) to c:temp.txt Export Record to a text file called c:rename.bat u…

Folks Smart Ranges allows you to generate relationships keys for ranges of dates and numbers without exceeding the 64KB limit, using only native FMP calculations. It's way cool. I've just taken the Smart Ranges keys and used them to generate find requests. This allows more complex finds and searches to be performed (though the demo file is only set up for one find request, it could be extended to more reasonably easily.) It took me two whole days and half the night in-between to nut this one out. If you haven't read the Smart Ranges docs, do so before you open the hood on the demo. SmartRangesFindRequests1.1.zip

The question sometimes comes up: How can the user select which fields appear on a layout without having access to layout mode. This can be easily done using calculated fields with the GetField() function or other similar means. But, the field can only be displayed; not edited. This example shows a scriptless method of doing this using auto-enter formulae in the main fields and proxy (display) fields so that editing the proxy field will update the original field. ProxyFields.fp7.zip

Current version is 6 (note V4 and V5 is not for FileMaker 5.5 or or less) TimeCards System Is an open source file. In this file you will be able to keep track of your employees time records. You can finally disconnect that old timeclock on the wall. This System Comes with TimeCards (Mine with Major Modified FM Template), Employee File (mine), Bugs And Features File (modified from free download). And by permission of John Sindelar of Cleveland Consulting in the background I am using a modified version of their Free Calendar. This is used to keep track of Vacation , Sick and Tardiness. In Employee File there is a key fields you must fill for this …

This is one simple text parser which I use as a custom function. So, if you have to take one part of the text, set the parameters in Ripper and go on. Let ( [ $Start = Position(Field; Parameter_From; ""; Occurrence1); $End = Position(Field; Parameter_To; ""; Occurrence2) ]; Middle(Field; $Start+Start_Correction; $End-$Start-Length_Correction) )

Here's my running calculator for quickly tabulating what your splits should be for a race. Its a little clunky since Filemaker requires that time fields be input with an hr:min:sec format. I've tried to use IWP for this but I can't enter most of the data fields and the tab order is funky. Any suggestions?

Hi, A 3 lines script able to : - check/uncheck 4 fields at once - control toggling method - check/uncheck target fields. The Parameters are stored with the buttons obviously, so ungroup them to see the parameters. The method relies on auto-enter fields with "do not recalculate" unchecked. I can't imagine how many scripts or "If/Else" in a script would have been necessary with FM6... Enjoy. DynamicToggling.fp7.zip

Hi, Someone was complaining that FM7 is 4 times slower than FM6. The script was generating 12,000 records, each filled with numbers from gMin to gMax, and while 1 minute 12 seconds where needed with 6, FM7 needed 4 minutes 30 seconds to complete the same operation with exactly the same loop. This alternate technique will create 72,000 records in less than 1:12:00 so in this case FM7 is 6 times quicker than FM6 Check it out. RandomCreation.fp7.zip

Since upgrading to FM 7 I have been frustrated by the Relationship Graph. When I have many overlapping table occurances, it was difficult to find the appropriate edit relationship box. Today I discovered two things... First... Select any T.O. to highlight it, then type ahead to skip to the proper table occurance. Second... Once you have the proper T.O. highlighted, use the left or right arrow to highlight the Edit Relationship box. With that highlighted you can click the pencil tool to display the Edit Relationships dialog box. I don't know if this is the only shortcut, but I was happy to find this one.

If some of your fields,supposted to import, contain validation which is set to validate "Always", be sure in your Import script you first did satisfy condition of certain validation and then do the import. If your validation for example contains that Field_A = 5, then in script which calls Import function put: SetField[Field_A; 5] and in script line below, call the import. It's simple thing which once did take me a day to figure out

Here is a Yahztee game that I'm submitting. Feel free to use it however you feel. I'm thinking about (later) adding it as an 'Easter Egg' in a much larger solution I'm building. I have seen this game all over the internet (mainly written in Java), but the only one I've seen for FileMaker was done years ago, and the interface (I thought) could have been better. So, I decided to create my own. I originally had the dice "shake" (animation) whenever a roll was commencing. I didn't like the way it turned out, so I scraped that idea. If you've got a cool idea on how to animate the dice roll, please let me know. Although it does work, if anyone could lo…

Hi everybody, my script can be used in every layout, and every file without changing and adding Value list, just required that every table have a three extra fields ( text, number and date). They are a temporary fields in which values are copied from desired sort column fields. Loop is slow, i hope that I will make it better! Veselko dynamic_sort.zip

Here is a technique to summarize all occurrences of checkbox items throughout a table. It uses a global calculation with the Evaluate function so that it updates when any items are selected or deselected. A simple refresh script is necessary, as is often unfortunately the case when using value list calculations. But it is quite easy, compared to how nearly impossible it was in previous versions. SummaryCount.zip

OK, so this is NOT how Matt Petrowsky does it. OTOH, it is very easy to implement, and it doesn't use the clipboard. I did not include the option to save named found sets, but again, that would be easy to add. Your feedback is welcome. UndoFind.fp7.zip

I HAVE ATTACHED A NEW VERSION - PLEASE DOWNLOAD The attachment now has this solution in both v6 and v7 of filemaker. Last Upload Update: 3/1/2005 4:50PM PST Update made to description to make it easier to understand. ---- This idea can be applied to auditing, validating multikeys, parsing value list data for conversions, etc. Any field that has data with a delimiting character can be evaluated in this manner. For this example I decided to outline how do create an audit process. The advantage of using this approach for auditing purposes is that in the files you want to audit you only need to create 5 scripts, 6 fields (3 calculation 3 global)…

Bob Weaver had posted a sample file a while ago with a script that determines holidays for a selected year. I was interested in a calc field, so i put one together. (Sorry if this has already been posted, but i couldn't find it.) The sample file determines the following US holidays: New Year's Day (Jan. 1) Martin Luther King's Birthday (3rd Monday in January) Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday in February) Memorial Day (last Monday in May) Independence Day (July 4) Labor Day (1st Monday in September) Columbus Day (2nd Monday in October) Veteran's Day (November 11) Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday in November) Christmas Day (December 25) The solu…

Apologies if this discovery has already been posted by someone; I searched, and believe it has not. Anyway, I've discovered that -- contrary to what is stated in FileMaker 7 Help, as well as my current, beloved FM bible "Special Edition Using FM 7" -- the "Replace Field Contents" script step does not require the specified field to be on the current layout (i.e., the one from which the script step is performed). The current layout must apparently be either based on the base table of the specified field or a related table occurence, to avoid an error, but in neither case does the field need to actually be on the (or any!) layout. In this way the behavior of this script…

Hi, Just playing with some chained relationship with 3 Tables and relations set to "allow creation of related records". From a layout in Parent Table, allows for instant creation of either a child record or a grandchild record. Also show a way to create instantaneously both an additional record in Child and Parent, backward from a GrandChild record. All done from one Layout only, without involving any "NewRecord" script step. As said in the title, these are experiments demonstrating how flexible relationships are in 7. The "Parent-Child-Children" table denomination are just used for illustration. The intent of this sample is *not* for Hierarchy relationship…

Here's a way to have your portal sort (any column and any sort order) using only one field, one value list and a one liner script, that also take care of the graphical indicators. -No Custom Functions used - FM7 version. You'd use a second step with Refresh Window (Flush cache) for classic portals, but this still is a max of 2 lines of script necessary. The tip can be easily used in any Table by just switching the value list attached to it, or may be used as a part of a dynamic portal where your users would simply choose the fields to place in the portal. Don't feel like posting anymore until XMas, so Merry Christmas to all of you. EasyPortalSortUS.zip

Fenton has suggested that I re-upload the template I made for this thread: http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=142891 Enjoy! --sd Popglobal.zip

Here is a sample solution that uses the Accounts & Privileges to aid in time bombing your demos. The concept is relatively simple. The guest access is disabled and the file is set to auto log in as the demo user with the demo password. Once the user registers a new account is created. The user may also turn on password protection, then the demo account is disabled thus prompting for account and password. If they choose to disable password protection the account is deleted and then re added with out a password and the demo account is enabled. The scripts check to see if the solution is registered if it is it will auto login as the registered user allo…

We needed a solution to pass many parameters to a function, and to quickly retrieve them throughout the script. Our parameters also has spaces in them, so we used the "~" as a delimiter. We have a custom function called: getScriptParameter( parameter ; number) The code for the custom funciton is: If ( number=1;Left (Get(ScriptParameter); Position (Get(ScriptParameter) ; "~"; 0 ; 1 ) -1) ; If ( number=(PatternCount ( parameter ; "~")+1) ; Right ( Get(ScriptParameter) ; Length(Get(ScriptParameter))-Position ( Get(ScriptParameter) ; "~" ; 0 ; PatternCount ( Get(ScriptParameter) ; "~" ) ) ) ; Middle ( Get(ScriptParameter); Position (Get(ScriptParameter) ; "~"; …

open up Address Book and start editing someone's card. Select the Birthdate field and type "today" then hit Return. Next try "tomorrow", "next week", "last month", "next Tuesday". This code will replicate this functionality in FMP. Create a date field that does a GetAsDate(TextField) Create a field called "TextField" auto enter this calc, then uncheck the auto update. Let([ field = textfield; v_left = LeftWords(field;1); v_right = RightWords(field;1); words = WordCount ( field ); today = GetAsDate(Get(CurrentDate)); tomorrow = today+1; yesterday = today -1; thisday= DayOfWeek(today); NextDayNum= Case( v_r…

Trigger File Example (FileMaker Pro 7) Do you have databases that are set to open with limited access? Do you get tired of constantly holding down the Shift key (PC) or Option key (Mac) key and entering your username and password each time you want to access it with your admin level privileges? Why not create a trigger file to save you the hassle? This file demonstrates how to open a file or set of files that are designed to open with limited access. As a developer I am sure you are aware of how annoying it can get to remember to hold down the SHIFT (PC) or OPTION (Mac) key when opening a database to then enter your Admin level access details. …

This file shows how to make up for the inability of FileMaker to Set a Field by Name or to go to a specific Field on a Layout. Sorry - Mac only a all of these Scripts use AppleScript. In FileMaker 7, instead of the field SetField.fp5.zip

Attached please find the first version of an open-source electronic medical records database I am currently developing with a client. His was a single-doctor shop and he wanted something to help him track medical records as he grew, but could not afford several thousand dollars for a system he wouldn't understand. GPL Femur (GNU General Public License File Maker Electronic Medical Records) is my first pass at creating such a thing. It is built in FP5 to make it as backward-compatible with older equipment as possible and has four passwords with increasing access: (no password), user, admin, developer. I have a *lot* to learn and won't ask any specific questions, but I…

Here is a sample login system that I discussed here As presented, it isn't really a complete login system. It's just an example of using a one-way hash function to encrypt passwords. The included notes give a bit more information. login System.zip

In attempt to make it work on IWP have I been really easy on the scripting, hence the intensive use of repeaters (not my style, usually!!!) ...the template actually works as expected but the rendering of the gantt hogs a lot processor power. So any suggestions to simplifications would be recieved with pleasure! --sd simplify.zip

In some situations you may find that Importing records is much quicker than using the Replace function. In one of my solutions I needed to Replace 12 number fields with data from 12 calculation fields in the same table ("Customer" table). The process was incredibly slow so I tried a different method which was much quicker. I created a new table called "Temporary". This table has number fields with the same name as the relevant fields in the Customer table as well a field called CustomerID. I imported all the relevant records from Customers (the 12 calculations) as well as the CustomerID into the Temporary table. I then imported these back into the Customer table base…

I love the ability to use script parameters in FMP7 -- simplifies many things. However one thing I wanted to be able to do is to easily get specific parameters, either by number of by name. With Developer's custom functions it was straightforward to write a function that gets a parameter by name: Custom Function "ScriptParamByName(Name)": //ParamPair is a mapping of a parameter to a value in the format "name: Value" Evaluate(" Let([" & Substitute(Get(ScriptParameter);[":";"="]) & "]; "&name&" )" ) ------------------------------------------------- Calling a script with Parameters: Note - it is helpful to list the paramNames i…

Hi, Here's a quick setting I came up with which allow you to build custom Tabbed Interface according to the Account browsing. With this kind of settings, you'd probably reduce the amount of "checkings" and If scripts when opening a Layout. Actually, they would even not be offered any way to access data as the Tab doesn't show. Well, this one is just for the Main Navigation bar, but with some more settings, following this same logic, you can even have it work for Sub-Nav Tabs. I didn't tested it in a Multiuser situation, but as the Tab is built using a global Lookup (you may switch to a related field too if you prefer), it should be specific to each user a…

Here is a pair of custom functions that others may find useful. I've been aggrevated by the inability to remove the font/size information from a block of text in FP7. I need to do this with text that has been pasted in from a different application (and thus has an associated font/size), and would like to appear in different fonts/sizes on different layouts. In earlier versions, you could reset the text font/size by using Set Field ( TextField ; TextField ), but this no longer works. You have the option of resetting the font/size to one of your choosing, but if you want the text to appear in the font/size as defined in the current layout, you're out of luck. …

7 helped reducing the amount of workarounds, but John Mark Osborne's visibility trick probably survived the upgrade. Here's an adaptation of his technique to provide hided selection lists ClickAndGo.zip

I was asked to calculate some median values and was surprised that as of Filemaker 6 (version I use - not sure about 7) has no built in function to calculate the median value of a found set. Hopefully this file can be of use to someone who needs to do the same. Also, if something is incorrect in the script, I would appreciate some feedback! median.zip

Regarding this Post click See sample it's not pretty but it was easy. Revision 2 posted 11/27/04 , Takes care of creating friends on couner records FriendsofVolunteers.zip

This is a further enhancement of the Find, with a twist. It combines a regular "filter by category choice" with a later "find with category." It is for data which is categorized, and which does not lend itself to an alphabetical filter (such as people's names do); but which may lend itself to an optional Find, once the data has been narrowed down by a preliminary category choice. There's actually some documentation in the file. It is especially built for Instant Web Publishing. It has not been extensively tested, so let me know if something is kinky. FoodsIWP_wFind.zip

Here is a first set of 10 step by step dissection of what repeating fields may be used for with FileMaker 7. I have 3 x 10 others to post once I will have completed other "homework", but these should be enough as a start to keep you interested in this repeating fields survival.

This is the simplest file to try to solve a long and winded discussion Here TimeTest.zip

Here's a simple custom function that allows you to search for strings of wildcards (and only wildcards) in a block of text. It replaces all numbers with "#", and all major punctuation with "/". I wrote it in response to a question for a way to see if a block of text contains a social security number, which you can search for as "/###/##/####/". It may need to be tweaked for specific purposes, but I imagine some other people might find it handy. The basics of the function are also written in a calculation field, for those of you without Developer and can't read the custom function. Enjoy! -Terence PositionWildcards.zip

I was looking online for a solution to the following problem, didn't find an answer, created this myself, and thought others would be interested. I built it in FM7, but it could be done, with more work, in FM6 also. The FM7 feature used is recursive custom functions. Here's the scenerio: You have two entities that have a many-to-many relationship, such as Users and Groups. A user can belong to many groups and a group can have many users. To enable your users to edit these relationships, you are providing a selection portal that shows the groups a user belongs to and the groups available. How to make the groups list show only groups that have not already been added to…

Just wanted to share my database with the forum to get any feed back that the members of the group may have. The database has two logins. Admin and Test. Both logins do not have any passowords. Please fell free to pick it apart. I have inculded with this file the CalSnap (www.briandunning.com) and an AppleScript that I found on the Net and modified for my use. This is my first attempt at using filemaker pro in creating a database from the ground up. It is still a work in progress. As I find out more information about FMP I try and add them to the database. If you have any suggestions about the "operation" of the fileds please let me know. I guess in the end this…

Hi Forum, Even though I've just been using FMP a short time I've gotten a lot of priceless help here and so rather than just take, take, take, all the time I thought I would post a humble little solution I was able to come up with on my own. I'm sure that there are other, more elegant approaches to the problem and I would be curious to see them... I need to send dated forms to Latin America and so Iwas looking for a way to translate the date into Spanish. (While in the US we use a MM/DD/YYYY format, in Latin America they use DD/MM/YYYY, so I was going to need to manipulate the date info at some point.) So I added a date field (with white text) called "DAT…

About Files Index The Files Index is a simple database designed to organize the tip files available from the FileMaker community. Formally, I little beat modify original file: Calcs Index ( John Mark Osborne/ Database Pros - The Philosophy of FileMaker Pro DevCon 2004 presentation ... this gay is really one of the Best - http://www.PhilosophyOfFileMaker.com, add few fields, scripts, one custom function (for sort portal - based on another guru: Matt Petrowsky, ISO Productions, Inc. http://www.filemakermagazine.com and little beat modify layouts and that FilesIndex.fp7.tar

Two Tricks: 1) To get a cool looking Title on a layout, use MS Word, WordArt Feature 2) Make files that contain nothing but Script runners. For instance I have file caled "End of Month", and it has a giant button, I press that, and performs all scripts needed to do the end of month. I kept forgeting in which order they were supposed to be in, befoe I figured this one out. To keep this going. I'm looking for any good Shortcut Keys in Filemaker Any one have a fav? Mine... is pressing CTRL, and then using the scroll mouse, to adjust veiw.

About Files Index The Files Index is a simple database designed to organize the tip files available from the FileMaker community. Formally, I little beat modify original file: Calcs Index ( John Mark Osborne/ Database Pros - The Philosophy of FileMaker Pro DevCon 2004 presentation ... this gay is really one of the Best - http://www.PhilosophyOfFileMaker.com), add few fields, scripts, one custom function (for sort portal - based on another guru: Matt Petrowsky, ISO Productions, Inc. http://www.filemakermagazine.com) and little beat modify layouts and that

Hi, This is an update to a former article in this section. Publishing a workable demo for this technique happened to be more tedious and time consuming than I originally thought, so pardon me if it isn't very transparent and fully working. Though the files are fully unlocked for you to dissect. I'm succesfully daily implementing this technique in 2 solutions I've been developing before 7 was launched. Each steps in the SmartFind.fp5 file has a corresponding pdf file that dynamically opens up for some brief guidelines. Two stored finds are now included in this demo, but because of System settings, you'd have to Save the following files as clones …

This very basic example file shows how to use applescript and Mac OSX shell script commands to write data directly to the file name and folder name of your choice. In this example, all exports go to the desktop but you can designate a folder if you want; and the folder will be created if it does not exist. You can write text, XML, HTML, etc. See example records. Of course you can use standard filemaker techniques to manipulate the content of the exort file, use substitutions on a global field, perform applescripted XML maniupulation, append date to existing files, etc. Bruce Robertson ExportByShell.zip

G'day Strewth mate, now, I am not a huge fan of Freehand but, yesterday I found that I could create pretty cool buttons with freehand and by working with vectors and using EDIT>COPY SPECIAL... copy as PICT, I could simply paste my non-rectangular buttons into FM, with transparency - fair dinkum cobber! Now fair crack of the whip mates... I've tried using Photoshop, especially to add drop shadows and stuff like that, but I found myself always having to match BG colours in PS with BG colours in FM, because I couldn't just drop irregular shapes into FM as a 'copy' without an annoying white background. It was a right bugger mates! What I'd really like is so…

This is a technique I came across some time ago that I haven't seen elsewhere, so I thought I would share it. Often I need to know if a field is one of a number of options and perform something if it is. The straight forward way to do this is something like: ( Item = "H100" ) or ( Item = "H110" ) or ( Item = "B100" ) or ( Item = "B110" ) I have one calculation in a solution I'm currently working on that has something like 20 possibilities. I found that I could use the PatternCount function to return the same results as above in a more compact form: PatternCount( "H100 H110 B100 B110", Item ) Assuming that Item can have only one of the…

Hi, Does anyone has a small example-file which shows you how to split the data from the layouts,how you can put data in those sytems and how you can find data in it (=fast finding) Thanks, Bruno

For those of you who, like us, are designers and developers...I thought I would post a handy little chart of the filemaker pro Web palette with it's HTML equivalent beside it. Hope you find it useful. filemaker6palette.pdf

Hey With the last update, time naturally comes back for some design. And with FM7 new "Time" selection, it becomes quite real... More to come (even the "active/not active status") obviously. PS depending on your system, you could set the clock a little less. With ".25", it's just cleaner here. Metal.zip

Hi, Here's one way of implementing a Dynamic sort (including headers) in v7 with only one script and very few added fields. Enjoy. Edited- sampler updated

Requires FileMaker vs. 7 ... Full Access is Account Name and Password of: Admin Restricted attribute access is Account Name and Password of: Restricted How does one control Users wanting to apply different text attributes to field data? Let them waste time selecting colors and fonts, only to strip them by using Auto-Enter (Replace) on every field? Let them run free and threaten them if they change the attributes? Totally remove menu text attribute options (either via Privileges or plugin)? I think there are simpler ways... Turn it over to Management. Let them decide which fields can be stylized; what font sizes, colors etc. may be used on a field-by-f…

I've extended one of my custom function examples, and I think I may have stumbled onto something that could actually be useful. ( Custom Functions are a FM Developer 7 feature only, but you can see it work if you have FM7.) It extracts all italic words from a piece of text into a newline-seperated list, which could be used to drive a portal to show similar articles, or a glossary of terms. You can see it in action by downloading the Style-Manipulation example from my website: http://www.spf-15.com/fmExamples/

I have a system that needs to compare the before and after values of a bunch of fields. There is a calc field, cFieldValues, that strings together the important fields and separates each value by a delimiter character and carriage return. When the user clicks the button to enter the edit mode screen, the button script puts cFieldValues into a global gStartValues. When the user saves the record, the button script has an IF statement that compares the current cFieldValues to the global with a simple "=" operator. If there are changes to any field values, other stuff needs to happen. This seemed like a sure thing until I began to see records with more than 255 characte…

Hi, Posted here just as an answer to someone's post on another Forum. Might interrest someone though here too. How to validate that one entry has already been computed in a repeating field, by either a validation calc or a script that build a dynamic value list. HTH ForKjoe_ValidDupeRep.fp5.zip

This is similar to the original example. But with some drastic alterations so that it works with Instant Web Publishing. LawCasesIWP.zip

Looking for graphics for your solution, Why recreate the wheel? This little utility will allow you to look at the icons and graphic images found in every app on your machine. Where you can then export and reuse for your one solution. http://www.mikematas.com/Software/

This example file is similar to my earlier one, but much simpler. Instead of setting the chose value into a new record in a "join" table, this one just goes to the chosen record. self_Client.zip

Originally by Jack Karnes (special thanks) , modify by INO You have more then 1.200 locations all the around world with longitude & latitude positions ! When choose two locations, automatically calc distance in miles & kilometers ! For non-commercial use free ! For commercial use ask for fee ! Happy FileMakering INO DistanceFinder.zip

Here an older zip code file I've been using. Not sure where I got it, but it's been very usefull. I think some file syou might be able to buy will have all the fancy zip +4 and such, but this one gets me by.

I've always loved using perl's regular expressions for finding matching bits of text. Now, with FM7 and custom functions, I was able to re-create a (somewhat simplified) version of perl's regular expression matcher completely with custom functions. You can download the file (which includes an explanation of the supported syntax) from my website: http://www.spf-15.com/fmExamples/ (see "Perl-style Regular Expressions") To use it, you call the RegexMatch custom function like so: RegexMatch( "[email protected]"; "((w+)@w+.(w+))" ) The result is a property list that pulls out the grouped pieces, or empty to indicate no match was possible. In this case…

The attached file demonstrates simple integration of unix shell scripting with FileMaker. It takes a list of values, sorts them, finds the unique values, and counts the occurrences of each unique value, and presents the top 5 to you. By itself this is a minor trick but it has interesting implications for reporting and other applications. It requires a Mac running OSX. When you try it, try using PartNumber as the selected field for your query. Note that the file will also summarize values from a second file if you have any other database open. The applescript looks like this: choose from list (get name of every field) set whichfield to item 1 of …

[DOUBLE-POST] Someone had posted a question a while back (maybe a month or two?), asking what error 6 means when trying to access a file across a network. I can find no documentation for this error, and it seems to be an FM error rather than a Windows one, so i will pretend to be an error 6 authority. I think i have an answer, but i can't find the original post. So here goes (hope you're still on the forum, bud). I hope the pooh-bahs will forgive me for double-posting, but i'm not sure where this should go. I have a local file that looks for a database on the network called "Opener.usr". Last night, running that file, i got an Error 6. When i open the Ho…

Does anyone know of a cash register solution, either open source or commercial?

This sample demonstrates how to manage your referenced images without need of any plugins! The same concept applies to any file-type management! You can: - insert an image and automatically have it "referenced" in the DB - have as many "larger" images that do NOT need to be stored in the container field - images are viewed by your default image viewing software for this image tyle (depending on your file assosication with particula fiel type eg. "all JPGs are opened with IE") - insert ANY TYPE of file that need "other files" associated with the same record - it DOES NOT require any Relationships NOR multiple Container fields Let me know…