Calculation Engine (Define Fields)

Perhaps I'm missing something simple here. I have a report that consists of only the Sub-summary part, no body. The report gives totals for how much was received for each item in inventory over a period of time using summary fields such as Total_of_Extended_Price. This report is in the line items file for the orders, by the way, so each record is a line item on an order. How can I get the average of the summary field. For instance, in the report I''m looking at, there were six different items that were ordered, so the sub-summary part shows up six times and gives the totals for each, even though the number of items that report covers could be hundreds, there are only…

Hope this doesn't make me sound too much like a newbie, but: I have a list of names that I import from Excel as First Name and Last Name. I need to make a merged name for labeling purposes. Ex: Derek Jeter----->jeter.d There is other info at the end, but this is where my problem is. Can I define the First Name field to have a maximum of 1 character no matter what is imported? Sorry if this just way too simple, and TIA Creepy

I have several global fields that I change on a regualar bases. But the last time I changed something in the fields and then went back to the layout, they had changed back to the original numbers (they weren't the numbers I just put in). Any suggestions?

I'm a newbie and I'm trying to determine if this program (FM5.5) can do what I want to do. I'm trying to figure out a way to essentially have records inside of a record. For example, the database will have a record for each client. Each record will have a "To Do" list which will have items being added and removed from it. I thought repeating fields might be the answer but I want the layout to expand or contract as I add and remove items on the list. And if I remove item 2, I don't want an empty space left over; I want item 3 to show up below item 2. Having one big text window is not what I'm looking for. The relational database thing won't work because each list wi…

I have a DB with customers and related DBs tasks and contacts. Every record has an ID. Customers have a CuID1,CuID2...and so on. I'd like to know how to avoid duplicate IDs. If I have CuID3 in an otherwise empty DB and I want to add more records starting from CuID1, FileMaker won't skip over the CuID3 it simply creates another CuID3 record without any notices even though I've set the field to UNIQUE. If I manually duplicate a record it works fine (ID+1). I've set the RecordID field to "autoenter serial (+1), unique, prevent modification, etc". How do I avoid the duplicate ID. This is really bugging me since it totally messes up my relationships and I have to sort the m…

I have a form which has a lot of calculations and input been done on it.I have a set of repeating fields arranged one after the other to look like a matrix.I want to know if I there is any way I can have a horizontal scroll bar when moved from left to right,the first repeating field moves through the screen from left to right.Or they are able to see the first repeating field as they enter the remaining from left to right.Hope you got what I am trying to say.Could I use a Activex Control to do that?? Thank You [ August 14, 2001: Message edited by: Jacob ]

Hi I know this is on old chestnut, but I can't seem to find an obvious solution. I have an event database (date field, time field, event). I am trying to perform a find subset of events that only happen up to a certain time. Example: (Rec, cDate, cTime, Event) 1 01.03.01 12:00:00 OFF 2 17.03.01 17:30:00 ON 3 20.04.01 09:00:00 ON 4 20.04.01 10:00:00 OFF 5 22.04.01 09:00:00 OFF 6 22.04.01 23:30:00 ON set globaldate=22.04.01 set globaltime=17:00:00 (I want to find all events that happened up until 22.04.01 at 17:00:00. If I set a calculation field so: calcdate: cdate<=globaldate AND ctime<globaltime it doesn't give me the right result because alr…

Hi, I have a layout that I need to print as a list with two different formats, depending on the kind of record. I have two different kind of records: the ones that need to be printed in a drawed table of 2 colums (e.g. sizes S and L), and the ones that need to be printed in a table of 4 colums (S,L,XL,XXL, one column for each size). I need to show both kind of records when I print a request. This is the way I have thought of doing this: 1.Doing a layout where the table contains two wide colums 2. Drawing 4 colums in Photoshop, that fits in the 2 column table 3. Make a "mini database", with 2 fields and two records: field 1: sizes: two records (sizes …

my problem is that i need to have the user enter two values, such that value1 + value2 = value3, where value3 is an unchangable piece of data from another database. The validation needs to be strict so that that equality always holds. However, if you just put that into the validate by calculation, you can never change the values, becasue you need to change both value1 AND value2 AT THE SAME TIME. I realize i could get around this by creating a script etc. I was just wondering if anyone knew an elegant way of solving the problem, such that the user would not have to fire off a script by clicking a button. ~Ati, jedi master

I'm very new to FileMaker. I have version 5.0 on PC and Mac. I'm creating a database of reviewers for a scientific journal and I want to insert biographical data for each reviewer as a pdf (or a Word) file in a container field so that I can pull up the parent application to edit these fields. In other words, I want to be able to link to Acrobat or MS Word. Is there a way to do this? Sorry if I sound excessively naive. thanks GC

Hello, I'm making some kind of inventory system. I Have two files. On named Items and one named Amount In file amount I have the fields Amount, Location, Type and Ordernumber. Type is a field with a valuelist (Reserved, Semi-finished, n/a). In the file Items I want to display the total amount of products. Eg. All amounts of Type n/a, the total amount of Reserved products and the total amount of product minus the reserved products. I hope this makes any sense... Can anyone help me with this.

Hi there, I have a weird problem. I need to use FM4.0 Chinese version anyway because of language requirments for users even FM won't upgrade this version. However, when I need to do calculation in a field, I need to insert hard carriage returns among fields in order to format fields into a paragraph for a field. However, in FM's Chinese version, the return operator was replaced by an arrow pointing downwards to the left that I can'r figure out what it does. Is there any alternative way to insert a carriage return (start a new sentence/paragraph). Thanks very much.

I would like to be able to sum certain values of a field based on a specific criteria. For example, I have orders that were placed in the years 2001 and 2000. I would like to have the sum of the charges for the order in the year 2000 show in one field and the sum of the charges for the orders in the year 2001 show in another field. I thought I would use the IF clause to do this for example if Year=Year[order date] then sum[total charge] however this summed all of the charges. I think I need something like a where clause. Sum Total Charge where year=year[order date]. Has anyone figured out how to do this in File Maker Pro? Any ideas would be very helpful!

Is it possible in any way to modify the value of a calculation field? I'm trying to make the default value of my Labor Cost field the following: Labor Cost(calculation, number) = Sum (Labor Line Items). This works fine, but I want Labor Cost field then be modifiable so it can be changed on my Invoice (which is another layout). I can't use an auto-enter field with a calculated value for Labor Cost because the Labor Line Item fields are based on some radio buttons and rate fields that aren't known when the record is created. Are there any known workarounds for doing this kind of thing? Thanks

I am creating a database that tracks the orders placed by a laboratory and the grants they use to pay these orders. I have created a file called orders and a file called grants (I also have a product file and a vendor file but they are irrelevant to this discussion). In the order file I created a layout that sorts the grants by ID(there are 5 right now) and then summarizes the amount spent against each grant by summarizing the total charges for each order. I need to take this calculation one step further. I would like to have a summary within a summary so that for each grant I can also see the amount spent each month. In my mind the report looks like this: [subsumm…

I have downloaded Visibility and More Visibility and am now looking for (Even MORE) Visibility! ;-) In order to save layout real estate, is it possible to use the Vis. trick to pop the portal/fields up in the same area? Or is there another trick? I know I could create another layout but the Vis trick is just sooo coool! Plus, I would like to be able to scroll through the records with just one layout. Thanks, Ed

I'm trying to set a conditional value list with checkboxes, but I can't get to check a checkboxe, File Maker gives me a message that the field is not modifiable. I did allowed entry in that field. Any advise?

I have a database that is multi user. There are 16 fields on the layout that the users see, there are about 12 fields on the layout that have data automatically entered based on information from other files and what is entered on the "log in" screen. So when the users sees their data entry screen all they have to do is enter in 3 fields. I need the 3 fields that they enter data into to do the following: The users enter the data, the users click on a button which takes the entire record to a "central file", in the meantime the user only sees the data that they entered in the 3 fields disappear and all the automatic information "stays" until she clicks on a button to end…

I want to validate the input of a field and generate an error if it is incorrect. The field is to allow letters, numbers, hyphens, fullstops and underlines. So commas and the rest of the other punctuation is not allowed. Thanks Simon [ August 05, 2001: Message edited by: SimonG ]

Hi For example, if I have 10 records with a priority field so record 1 is priority 1, record 2 is 2 etc. then I change say record 5 to priority 1, it will automatically change old priority 1 to 2, 2 to 3,etc. Thanks

Does anyone have a "Calendar Icon" that I can use as a graphic button to trigger a link to a pop-up calendar. For now, I'm just using a regular text button to make the link. Dale

Each record has a job number field and a price field. The job no. may be the same on different records. How can I create another layout with the job no. displayed only once but the total price of all records that contain that job no. Thanks

Hello, I have a problem I have 3 fields: start, stop, and end. Start & Stop are fields, where information is brought in. The 'End'field must be calculated as follow. The 'end'field must have the same value as the 'start'field from the next record! How can I do this, without writing a script that goes from the last throught the first record, and then use paste and copy?:? All help would be very welcome!!! Greetings from the Netherlands Harjo Kompagnie

ok.. i have a field (called "phone1"), and the info in the fields looks like this Work | 555-555-5555 what i need to do is create a calc field that will be equal to everything after the pipe '|' symbol.. so how would i do the calc.. so for instance if my phone1 field looked like this Work | 555-555-5555 i would want the new calc field to look like this 555-555-5555

I need to track all enrollees for a given program. There are Enroll Date and Cancel Date fields. I want to count the number of consumers that are enrolled (Enroll Date) and have not been cancelled (Cancel Date). I also need to count to total enrollments, total active and total cancellations for a given fiscal year. I appreciate any help offered.

Does anyone know of a way to create an incremental auto-backup script within FM Pro 5? If it's not possible, is there an existing x-platform plugin or script (Applescript and Windows equivalent) that will handle this? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks. Marc My apologies. I realized that I was in the "Define Fields" forum the second after I posted... [ August 04, 2001: Message edited by: mgb99 ]

It doesn't seem like I can have more than one portal in a layout. I want to put two portals in one layout, but the data shown is simply duplicated between the two portals despite defining separate and unique relationships. One portal works fine, but the second one shows duplicate data from the first portal. However, the two separate relationships used do have similar definitions: they both use the same related file and they do both match data from the same field, but it compares from an entirely separate field. What gives?

I have 2 fields and Fields A and Field B and i want the combination of both to be unique ie field A & field b to be unique value. How would you get it to check this not using a script. I cannot get it to work I think I have tried everything but do not want to use a script. e.g Field A = hello Field b = Simon I want to check that this has not been used before. I tried concatinating the 2 hellosimon using the autoenter but this then does not check if it is unique. Thanks

Hi, I have two different databases. The first one is for colors, and for each color there is a code. In the other database I have included items that can have different colors. I have made a pull out menu that shows for each color name field the different color names available. I would like to know the way of showing the code for each color once you select the color name, without needing to enter the code manually. That is, when I enter "color name 1", it automaticly shows the correspondent code in "color code 1", and the same for color 2, 3, etc (in the same layout) Any help is very much appreciated!

I am trying to create a Letter form. I have created a print script wich will take it to a form layout with the proper header on each page. All I need now is an automated field on top wich display "page 1 of 3" and "page 2 of 3" etc.... I am currently using <@@> to just put in page number but is not effective when faxing. Please help....

Hello, I have a big database with about 70 fields, and i want to know how can i make a log file containing the user that have modified each field, when it was modified and the last value...... I have tried to do it and the modifier name and when it was modifed is very easy to do but I don't know how to store the last value??? It must to be done automatically....i can't wait the user to click in a button to perform a script... Thanks and I waiting for replies.

Is there a way that I can make a calculation global? What I am trying to do is this ... probably quite simple. I have total number of rooms available as a global, locked field. The secretary is going to enter in the number of rooms the user bought into the used rooms (not global) field. I want the calculation (total - used) to be global, so she can see how many rooms are left. Is there a way to make calculations global? Thanks in advance, Jake

I new to these forums, and I hope I can explain myself correctly. I have an invoice data base and in one layout I'm able to see what invoices are unpaid and outstanding. These are the fields I'm using: invoice inv_date inv_datePaid invElsaped calculation > If(inv_datePaid="","", inv_datePaid - inv_date) When I'm paid, I enter the date in the inv_datePaid field and I can see how many days have past...this works fine. I have created a new layout for receivables ...My terms are net 30 days,so an invoice is not past due until 30 days have past. I made two new fields days_outstand and days_pastDue. days_outstand calculation > Today- inv_date days_…

I have 12 different sections in my database on each section it will total up. Some of these sections may not be filled out yet. I need to create a calculation base on the number of sections that contain totals. For example section 1 has the total

I have a booking database which has fields such as Name, Address, Telephone No etc. There are also 2 dropdown lists, one is a list of courses, the other a list of dates. The dates shown will depend on what course is chosen. There is to be a maximum of 12 people on a course for each of the dates. If there are 12 records that have the same course and date then I want a message to say 'The course is fully booked' or soemthing along those lines, plus I would like it so that no more ecords with the same course and date can be chosen once there are 12 records. Is this at all possible?? Thanks in advance. DJN

I have been trying desperately to create a field that will subtract the data in my 'BirthYear' field from the year in the current date. This would give me an age that would update itself in the future. I cannot for the life of me figure out the formula. I tried this: BirthYear - Year(CurrentDate) = Current Age but to no avail. The term 'Year (CurrentDate) isn't recognized as a value. Any suggestions?: Thanks a million in advance.

I've built a database in FMP4.0 to record travel agents to which we send product on behalf of our clients. Currently there are over 5,000 records. Each record has a layout with 15 fields indicating our clients and 15 corresponding fields which categorize the agent as "A", "B", "C"..."F" according to their importance to our clients. I need to create a summary layout which returns a count of each category by client (eg: Client One: 15 A, 29 B, 987 C, etc.). One way I can do this is create a series of "if" calculations eg: if(client one category = "A", 1,0). Then perform a count of the results. However if I do this, I'll need create 180 calculations (15 x 6 categoies an…

I want to format a price field, such that when a Customer Type field has radio button "Dealer" clicked, the price will be $X, but when "Non-dealer" is selected, the price will be $Y. The button needs to be "live," not an auto-enter at record creation based on a selection that hasn't been made yet. But the price must be overideable by the user. How can I do this?

I have a file called Season_Setup_Line_Items that adds up ticket totals for a season using a summary field. Then I have another file that generates a report for all ticket totals (including season tickets) called Ticket Inventory. I want to use the total from the summary field in a calculation in the Ticket Inventory file, but when I try this it only works for one record (event). When I run the report for a different event, I get incorrect results. I don't know how to get the total for a set of records in a file, and use that total in calculation in a related file. Please help!!

I have a relational database where there are: 1. A parts inventory database 2. A vehicles inventory database 3. an Invoices database 4. A Line Items database, among others. On the invoice (within a portal creating new records in the Line Items database), my user will enter a number in the "Quantity" field. I need to validate this quantity based on several parameters, and generate various error messages depending on the parameters violated. Since both Parts and Vehicles may be ordered on the same invoice, we first have to determine upon entry whether "Quantity" is to be subtracted from the Parts Inventory or the Vehicles Inventory, then make further validations ba…

Is it possible to make a field trigger an action such as a script? I would like to have a "price" field be set whenever the "product id" field is modified without clicking a button to make a script perform. Cannot use a calculation for the price field, as this would cause all records in history to recalculate if the price of that product actually changed.

This is fairly easy. The median is the middle number. Say your numbers are A, B, and C. Median (calculation, number) = Case( (A = 0) + (B = 0) + (C = 0) > 1, "Error", A = 0, (B + C)/2, B = 0, (A + C)/2, C = 0, (A + :/2, A >= B and A<= C, A, A <= B and A>= C, A, B >= A and B<= C, B, B <= A and B>= C, B, C >= B and C<= A, C, C <= B and C>= A, C, "") -bd

Does anyone know the limits of lookups when importing records? I am importing data from a dbf file which should lookup three fields from two other FM files based on three different relationships. The lookups do not work during the import and I have to perform a manual (slow) relookup to get the data into the fields. I created a test file with only the key fields needed and the lookup worked fine during the import. I have the feeling that some kind of calculation or subroutine in my main file is stopping the lookup. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Hi, I am making a database for my department using FM 5.5, that includes text, calculations and small graphic fields. I have been asked about the possibility of making a database for another department. This one should include up to 5 graphics per record, and the size of each graphic could be up to 1 Megabyte big. If I made one database per season, each one would have up to 300 records, that makes the size of each database about 1500 Megabytes big. This database would be used by 10 persons at the same time (through an Apple server), that would need to drag drawings from either Illustrator or Photoshop into FM. Besides, different users would need to print records at the s…

Not sure if this topic belongs here or in the scripting area, but here goes. Background: I have a field that requires validation. When a user clicks on a button to enter a "New Record" I give them a message to continue or cancel, if they continue I issue a New Record script step. Note: these users cannot perform "deletes" of records. Question: Now they are in the input screen, but what if they want to cancel without putting in a new record? I tried putting in a "Cancel" button that turns on Set Error Capture and then capturing "509". I thought if I captured it and then redirected them to another screen it would work, but it doesn't. It still is performing validati…

Hello I had been working along the last years with FM, I started with FM 4 and recently I updated it to FM 5(everything works well) and after it to version 5.5 and I saw a serious Bug that would damage all the calculated data on my database. It's something like this: If(Field<>"X", 0, 1) When this field still empty on version 5.5 the result of this calculation still empty and it's wrong because it would receive a "0". With version 4 an 5 it works. My database is very big, with 31 files and about 2000 fields and most of then are calculated and I can't modify each calculated field. Is there a way to solve it??? HELP ME PLEASE> Thanks

I would like to have a few fields auto-enter looked-up values from globals that contain the current cost of an item. Each time I create a new record (an order form), the record is assigned a unique serial number (through an auto-enter). I also want the current cost of an item to be auto-entered based on a lookup. The lookup is to the contents of a global field in the same file using a self-join relationship. I am using the unique serial number as a match field for the lookup "self join" relationship. But this does not work... it appears that the self-join relationship is not found because the auto-entered serial number (the match field) does not yet exist …

I have a number field called Tuition. I have a summary field called Total_of_Tuition which is set to (of all things) Total of Tuition. I have a self-join relationship using a constant on both sides called SelfJoin~gConstant. I have a calculation field called Total_of_Tuition_All_Records with the following calc: Sum( SelfJoin::Tuition ) If the current found set is all records, shouldn't these two numbers be the same? They aren't for one of the fields (this method is used for a number of fields). For the calculation the value is 2,421,040.80. For the summary field the value is 868,079.16. This seems to work find for the other fields. The reason I'm using this meth…

I am attempting to setup an hours calculation format. My question is - Is there any way to set up the time fields (for in/out times) that are quick data entry - without having to be military time or having to enter AM PM. If it could be done without the colon that would be great, too. I want my data entry person to only have to key numbers - it goes faster and is easier to remember. Is there a conversion method that I am missing or something that will take a field entered as a number and put it to being a time? Much thanks in advance for any help. [ July 27, 2001: Message edited by: Zaphod ]

I keep a simple database of supplies ordered by our laboratory. Each order is given a unique id number. This field is defined as 'Strict data type, numeric only' and 'unique'. The problem is, when a user duplicates a record, the id number is duplicated. I need to allow duplicating records but prevent the contents of the 'id number' field from duplicating. Many Thanks Brett Onslow

I am using the following calculation to determine the number of days that have elapsed since a document was submitted for review. If(Date Rec <> "", (Date Rec - Date to) * 1, (Date to - Today)* (-1)) On 7/20/2001 the user (via browser) sees this (calculation works): Date submitted: 7/19/2001 Date returned: Days in review: 1 On 7/23/2001 the user (via browser) sees this (calculation doesn't work): Date submitted: 7/19/2001 Date returned: Days in review: 1 If I edit the record via browser and change the date submitted to 7/20/2001, it correctly calculates 3 days; when I change the date submitted back to 7/19/2001, it correctly calculates 4 days. …

Is there a means of making the field size variable in browse mode so that, in a table layout, the height of each row varies to fit the content of a designated field? Thanks!

I need to add more entries into a budget field for one record with an associated date and some comments. Do I need to create a separate database for budgets. Also, how can I go about getting the total budget to date?

Hello! I am from Ecuador (the Galapagos Islands country). I used FileMaker Pro 3 years ago. I need to make a automatic graph chart with MS Excel, but I don't know. Help me please. Thanks

Is there a way to format text (make bold or italic) within a calculation? I have a calculation which compiles a list of entries from a number of different fields and I have placed a "name" in front of each entry (the calculation only compiles fields that have data in them). I would like to make the "name" bold. Is there some sort of formatting code that can be entered?

Is there any way to tell a field that if it is defined as being 3 characters in lenght, that when the field is full (3 characters) to go on to the next ?

Greetings All, i am trying to figure out simple formula for having the expiry (check-out) date appear as i enter the number of days stay. Example..think of Hotel..adding the number of nights to the current registration date..result Check-Out date. This must be too simple for some i know, but i have waisted way to much time fussing over this...any help would be greatly appreciated..

Is there a way to set the text insertion point to the beginning of a field, as opposed to the end?

I think I have made a large error as a developer and I need to know if and how I can get around it. I am creating a database for our production line which will be supported by Filemaker Server 5(multiusers). I created a prototype and have come to realize that there will be 3 operators on 1 record at the same time entering their information in different fields and different layouts, but they need to be putting the information on the same record because each operator does a different step of the production process. Filemaker does not allow more than one person entering on 1 record. Is there a way around this?

I am designing a payroll book for our accounting staff that holds shift, absence, and overtime information. Each employee has a value for shift hours, absence and overtime for each day in a month. The reports that are generated are based on monthly summations. I can see doing this three ways. The first is to define three repeating fields with 31 repetitions each, and then work around them. the second is what my supervisor wants me to do, is create 93 fields in place of the repeating fields . The final option, the one i think would be best, is to create a related file of daily records, and then just use portals and a relationship based on month/year/name. one problem wi…

How do I default (declare) a time field value to be a greater (future)value than the previous time field used in a record (twenty time fields in this record)? The problem occurs when user's time passes through midnight (Field 1 at 8:00 PM and field 2 at 4:00 AM) This produces a numerical value in the negative range (-57,600 rather than 28,800), the calculation is looking back rather than ahead regardless of the AM/PM suffix or a 24 hour clock entry. The current solution for one field (One_Time) is: If(One_Time = 0,0, If(Two_Time <= 0 and End_Time > 0, End_Time - One_Time, If(Two_Time = 0 and End_Time = 0, Current_Time - One_Time,Two_Time - One_Time))) …

I have a script that shows a "Do you want to print?" message. Is there any way that I can run this script when a field (using a value list) is modified? That is, when I select an item from the value list, the message pops up. I was thinking that there must be a way to put it in a validation for the field definition. Thanks, DaveC

I’ve been away from Filemaker for a while so please forgive this simple question. Is there an easy way to do a layout in a file that has a list of all parts sold, so that the layout only has the part number and summary field displayed? I’ve been able create a layout where I can see all of the values, after proper sorting, but I’d like to print just the unique part numbers and totals.

When working in a multi user application, does each user maintain their own value in a global field, or does the last value set by any user become the default for all?

Hi there, I have been working on a database where I removed the Status Area and instead of the conventional "record-browser" implemented my own navigation - so far four buttons doing "First Record", "Previous Record", "Next Record" and "Last Record. Piece of cake. Now I would like to add the following text information: Record Number, Total (found) Records and Total Records. Example: a) Browsing my records. Looking at record number 22 out of all 398 records: 22 of 398 - 398 : Searching my records. Found 114 out of all 398 records. Looking at record number 22 of all found 114 records: 22 of 114 - 398 Can this be done? Any help would be appreciated

Hello all, I'm new around here, I've been messing around with FMP for quite some time, I even have a "professional" solution out there but there is still so much I don't know. Like this, and I'm sure I'm not the first person to want to do this: I am making a separate Addresses file so our Contacts file will access it via portal. Our Contacts frequently turn into Customers, so they may have a Billing Address, a Shipping Address, and a Large Shipment address, or even more, so allowing an open ended number of addresses is necessary. I need to flag the Primary addresses of each type: billing, shipping, large shipment. There will be many of each in the database, but …

I created a field with a calculation...that combines the following information: Units*Price per unit=Total Cost. However, if the total cost is less than $51.00 I would like it to default to $51.00. That is the minimum charge. I have tryed several different formulas in the "specify calculation" area, but can't seem to figure it out. Any suggestions?

I've built a FMP database of patents (in pdf format) I have strored on my hard drive. I'm sharing this database with my co-workers in a dual platform (Macs and Windows) environment. I would like to make the pdf files available to them as well so that they could open (launch) the selected file from FMP, or transfer a copy of the patent to their computer (without my intervention, of course). I've been able to write a script to launch the appropriate file on my computer but can't figure out how to do it even for the other Mac users, let alone Windows users. Can this be done? And, if so, how? Any help will be greatly appreciated. [email protected]

Hi fellas, Am not sure if this question has been posted before. Here's the problem. I am trying to track the number of leaves an employee took in any particular time. So say he takes 2 weeks leaves from Jul 1 2001 up to July 14 2001. But in terms of business days he is actually only taking 10 days leaves(after discounting the weekends). How do I approach this problem? Thanks in advance. I hope I have stated my question clear enough. Henry

I have a small invoicing database that handles Japanese Yen, but sometimes I need to issue invoices in USD. At present I have a pull down menu which indicates which currency and that is linked to two different invoice layouts Yen / USD. I want to simplify this by having the currency symbol change in the accounting fields according to the selection in the currency field. Can any one suggest how I would do this Thanks.

Just wondering if there's anyway switch character or any other way to get double quotes into a text calculation. Thanks

I am an artist, and I have two inter-related databases to manage my art inventory. The first database is called "Art Inventory" and the second is called "Art Competitions". I list all my art works in "Art Inventory", and all the competitions I enter are listed in "Art Competitions". When I submit slides of an art work to a competition, it is listed in a repeating field called SLIDES SENT (field values here are auto-defined by the ART TITLE field from the other "Art Inventory" database). Multiple and unique entries are made in SLIDES SENT.(I send duplicate slides to different venues). What I can not figure out is how to have each unique venue (to which I send slides) autom…

I have a calulation repeation field SAM which has If( Status( CurrentFieldName) ="Qty", 1000 ,Qty ) The expected output would be when I change the value of Qty the value of SAM should be 1000 else equal to Qty.SAM is set to unstored also. But it always sets the value to Qty I have other Status( CurrentFieldName) in the same file and they work perfectly but this one just seems to get stuck.Any Ideas? Qty is also rep field and they all have the same repetions.

I created a very simple "locator board" using FileMaker Pro 5.5 (evaluation version). In it I have three date fields created simply by choosing Date in field type. The problem is when you type in a date with a two-digit year (e.g., 7/6/01), it reads it as 1901. I would have thought that this version of FMPro would be Y2K compliant. What's going on? Is it me or is it a bug?

Hi, Could someone assist me with this problem in FM 5: I have a starttime field and an endtime field. I do not know how to format them as time fields. I wish to use a calculated field to return the difference in decimal, to one decimal place. The formula needs to account for times either side of midnight. I would prefer not to have to enter accompanying dates as this circumstance occurs often enough to warrant allowing for it, but not often enough to justify two date fields. I have tried Timecalc=If(endtime<starttime,endtime+24,endtime)-starttime. The value returned does not make sense. Thanks for any assistance offered.

Background: I've been creating a layout that contains conditional value lists to determine the information to be viewed in a portal on the same layout. The portal is also capable of being sorted by the users choice of sort buttons. The layout was working great. Then, all of a sudden, I added another field (with a conditional value list drop down menu) and a rounded rectangular box behind it for aesthetic purposes. When I switched to Browse mode, both the field and the background box disappeared. They are not grouped together. In fact, I deleted the field and left the background box in place. You guessed it, the background box still disappears when I switch back to…

I have a datbase that keeps track of all of my ads on my website and what I want to do is to be able to have one field that I input the start date of the ad and then have a field where I input the number of months I want the ad to run but I can't figure out how to be able to calculate the start date and number of months to return the ending month of the ad.

I'm doing a fairly complex formula that sets the price for lots in our inventory, the price depends on a number of variables such as size , type, location etc. I'm using the case funtion and a bunch of global fields by which to compare, and the formula extends to about four pages long, at the end of about the first page I get the message : "too many separators", I've looked for errors and I couldn't find any so my assumption is that perhaps there is a limit on the size that a formula can be ? is there any ? or do I have to look harder at my formula. Thank You

I am trying to use a plugin to send email from filemaker. the plug in works fine but I am having trouble formating the body of the email the way I want it to look. Only text fields can be used in the body of the email but because it is an estimate I want to retain the $ and number formatting. Not losing the $ or trailing 0's. Is there a calculation with a text result that will take a number field and have the correct formatting when finished. ie. $4,879.79 Thanks, Wayne

quote: Originally posted by David Trawick: cross posted in Images... sorry, I'm a little desparate !! Sorry we do not allow cross-posting, especially into basically unrelated forums.

Not really. But you can copy all the elements on the layout and paste them onto a layout in another database. You'll have to set the layout parts (headre, body etc) in the new layout by hand before pasting so everything will fit. Field objects will transfer across only if the two databases have the same field structure.

I have a few global fields, lets say 4, in which contains a paragraph each. Within each paragraph in the global fields, there is some text formatting, such as one sentence in the middle of the paragraph italicized. Then i have a calculation field (c_Letter) that mixes and matches two of the 4 fields together. On a print layout, i have the salutations etc and some merge fields and then the body of the letter as a merge field, <<c_Letter>> . The text formatting doesn't hold!!! Please someone help me see the light. . . how can i make the text formatting hold if it's only 1 sentence within the paragraph. Thanks in Advance Jeremy

DO NOT USE REPEATING FIELDS! You will regret it if you do. It sounds to me that file B is organized just fine. I'm not so sure about file A. If file A contains the general quote information like customer name and address etc. then you should probably have third file (file C) to hold the line items for the quote. Then, you put a portal to file C on your file A layout so that you can add multiple items to the quote. To get the proper prices, you just have to create the proper relationship from file C to file B. Typically, you create a ProductQty field that concatenates a product ID to the break quantity like so: ProductID&""&Right("00000"&NumToText(BreakQty…

Maybe you can use javascript. I'm not a web companion expert. Otherwise: There is a technique that uses calculation fields and auto-enter lookup fields to do some of the things that you would normally do with a script. Once you get it set up it's like magic. The trouble is, it's probably the most incredibly complicated thing you can do with filemaker calculations. There is a very simple example on http://www.databasepros.com that uses this technique to reformat a phone number. You can download the example files: Mac: http://www.best.com/~jmo/FORMAT.sit Windows: http://www.best.com/~jmo/FORMAT.zip Also, I have done a more complex example that automatically log…

When defining a field, is there a validation calculation you can use to limited the field to max. 10 characters for example. Also, will this disable the ability to carriage return within a field?

Hello I can't figure out how to delay the calculation in one field until two other referenced fields are filled in. The check off delaying calculation if any referenced fields are empty doesn't seem to work. It doesn't make any difference check it off or not. Also does Filemaker allow for more then one level of undo or can it be prevented from saving every modification?

Hello, I've a DB for chemical storage managment. I set up a pop-down field for chemical name which is connected to a "product" file. In that way I can choose a chemical name and have in different fields some chemical product informations. Something very classical. So, is it any way to automatically update the "product" file when I enter new chemical name in the pop-down field (I check the possibility to add new item in the value list) in the main DB. one other thing, when a chemical is terminated I would like to archive the record for storage. How can I do that ? I was thinking to set the record in "ignore the record" or may to export the record in another file. th…

Hi to all, I have a problem with a Date field in one of my databases; the field is defined as 'Date' type, and in the 'Validation' section, it is validated as 'Strict data type : 4-Digit year date'. In one of the layouts I'm entering the date in that field in the format : dd/MM/yyyy, and as soon as I tab out from that field, the date format turns into MM/dd/yyyy. It is a very strange thing, because this started happening only yesterday, and it was working fine before that. I'm not also sure if this is a problem with windows or FM. More information My databases are hosted on a Windows NT 4.0 server,and we have a TCP/IP network. The machine which has the problem has Wi…

Hi, I'm new to FileMaker Pro. I have used Visual FoxPro extensively in the past but that is not a possibility with this project [i am an avid hacker but computers are not my profession]. I have read the "Field Filters:Formatting Data Automatically" from the FileMaker web site but even following the instructions for a phone field format if I re-enter the field the format is lost and intermittently returns upon tabbing out of the field. Questions: 1.. Should I have a tab stop for the format definintion field? 2. Should I do anything to make either field invisible as with fill, colors etc. 3. Is there any way to fill with fomatting characters such as (xxx) xxx…

Let's say I have 2 fields: A and B If A has data, then B must have a data, otherwise B can be blanked. I can run a script to check such as: if not isempty(A) and isempty(:, then show message, But I like to check it by go to field definition, and click validation tab. I attempted to do this way couple times, but I always get a FMP error message What I did is: Case( not isempty(A) and not isempty(:, 1, 0) and the error message look like: An operator (eg +, -, *,..) is expected here. What did I miss? Thank you in advance. HP

How can I create a pull-down menu, which would select different layouts depending on which of the options in the pull-down menu is selected? Thanx, Luka

if i have a week number and a year, is it possible to generate the starting and/or ending date of that week?

I need to figure out how to write a calculation that finds a quanity: first finds all entries for a specific field that are not blank , then pulls out all entires for another field with a specific value.

What is the difference between the calculations for dates "today" and Status(current Date)? Both return today's date but is there a setting where one is more advantageous, faster, uses less memory or CPUY time, etc... then the other? Thanks. Greg

Hi Is it possible to get two checkboxes to work as radiobuttons? In our database some of the records may belong to one of two cathegories. A record can not belong to both cathegories at the same time. And most of the records don't belong to any of them. Of course it's simple just to uncheck box A before or after checking box B, but it would be nice not having to think... Just checking box B and watch the the check in the A-box dissapeare. That would prevent errors when registering. TIA Anders

How do you escape a quotation mark in text. I'm trying to add an href in a calculation field and the href has the quotation marks in it. The field ends like so... & "

I need to duplicate a field and all the data from that field in each record into the new field. (ie not a global field where each record has the same value but rather each record has a different value based on the original field) . What would be the easiest way to do this? Thanks.

I want to concat some text fields: T1&T2&T3 Then assign the concat value to new text field called A (set A = T1&T2&T3) But before I assign the concat value to A, I like to check if the length of T1&T2&T3 is exceed to its limit. How do I know and check the limit? Thank you in advance HP

Essentially, I need to find out what field the user has selected. I am setting up a sign-up sheet on-line which would allow a user to enter their name into a time slot (field) - if that slot is available. However, if another person has already reserved that slot, the field needs to have a mechanism to block a new entry into that same field. What I would like to do is get the name of the field the user selected and run a script that would check to see if that field is empty or has already been reserved. If reserved, the user would be blocked from entering new information. To me, this all hinges on knowing which field the user selects and I thought that is what Status(Cu…

I'm sure this question has been answered before, but I can't find it in the past forums. How do I get the minus (-) symbol in a pop up menu? I have a field called PCR results. It's either + or -. When I try to define the value list, it interprets a "-" symbol as a break line. So I've been temporarily using the underscore ( _ ) symbol. Thanks!