Calculation Engine (Define Fields)

I am having a Problem in FM 6 Developer with a date calculation. The problem is as follows: I have two date fields which are both user entered fields and native to the same record. I have a third field (also native to the same record) that calculates the difference in years between the two previously mentioned date fields. The problem I have encountered is that the calculation only updates when the information is updated in the second date field. I can update the information in the 1st date field all day long and the calculation field will not display updated results. Has anyone encountered this problem? Thanks.

I need to format a postal code. I have about 400 of them in my database and this code includes both letters & numbers (example: K0J1L0 is what was imported. I need it to appear K0J 1L0). It seems easy enough to add this space between the first 3 and last 3 letters/numbers. I used the following: Let ( imput = Filter (Postal Code; "0123456789") ; Left (imput; 3) & " " & Right (imput; 3) ) I formated the calculation to be text. Yet it returned values that were only numbers! All of the letters became numbers! Can you help?

Hello folks I'm new to the whole filemaker thing and finding my way fairly slowly. Hopefully this question is in the right place. I'm using Filemaker 7 on a mac and a pc. I have a list of address's database with fields like this: street number, street name, town, county etc for each street name there are several street numbers as such: 1;2;4;6;7;8 harley street london etc what i need to be able to do is automatically create multiple records so that i have (in this case) 6 records with one street number thus: 1 harley street 2 harley street 4 harley street etc. the reason i need it automated is I have 15000 odd records that…

I'm working on a school database with several tables: students, classes, class_records. Students has general demographic information, classes is a list of classrooms and grade levels, class_records is the table where kids are assigned to classes. Class has: grade teacher year room Class_records has the following fields: recordID studentID classID year What I need to do is create a calculation field in the student table that shows the grade level for the most recent year. I'm sure this is simple, but I'm drawing a blank!

I would like to compare the fields in a record to the fields in the previous record and change the color of the text if the field is different. The comparison will be done in a found set of records so the comparison will need to be dynamic. For instance, the weight in the first found record is 100, the weight in the second record is 200 and the weight in the third is 200. I want the 200 in the second record to display in Red and the other two records will display in black. Any suggestions?

I'm looking for something similar to the drop-down calendar option in Field Control Setup, but that would give me something like a day book schedule with times in 15 minute increments from 9am-5pm for the record date entered in the previous field on my form layout. Is there anything existing I can use in FM8.5? Or does anyone know how I could go about creating it? Thank you.

For populating container fields with files where the file path can be calculated as the contents of a text field, I would like to set the "Specify source file" and "Specify output file" options for the associate script steps listed below. The dialog box seems to only want file paths manually entered. Is there a way to use the contents of a field to do this? Insert File[], Specify source file Save Records as PDF [], Specify output file Thanks, Paul

Hi everyone, I've been working in web development for a while and away from FileMaker, and now that I need to use it I find that I'm VERY rusty! I appreciate any help that you can provide. I want to set up a field that automatically calculates a priority list based on an entered due date. For instance, if the due date is today or tomorrow, the priority would be Very High. If the due date is the day after tomorrow, the priority would be High. The day after that would be medium, and anything after that would be low. I also want it to only count weekdays, if that's possible. Can anyone help? Thank you SO much! Very best, TigerGirl

I am trying to do an autofill field with a calculation that I just can't seem to fight my way through. I have a field "Frequency" and want to calculate the field "TV Channel" I have all the numbers, but can't come up with the syntax. The calculation is mostly "if is >10 but <19.9, then "1", and "if is >20 but <20.9, then "2". But i have to repeat the if/then statement 69 times, as there are 69 possible TV Channels. Any help on where to start this would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

We've got 3 Macs sharing a FMPro7 database that processes orders. Instead of making a hard copy invoice, I want to write a script to create PDFs which are embedded in a container field. I’m concerned about access to the files by all users (trying to avoid filepath complexities) so that anyone can click a button and have the invoice display. I'm looking for the best way to structure this so that I don’t run into too many unforseen problems. THANKS!

I need to learn how to format phone numbers & zip codes correctly. Once again as an MS Access user I know how but can't discover it in FileMaker. Help please!

I need to do a couple of things related to time but my math skills are not getting the job done. Any help would be appreciated. I have a perfect time (pt) and an actual time (at) I need to find the difference between those two in non negative numbers, and then have text that will tell me if the difference is late or early. example 1 pt = 13:14:25 at = 13:14:26 desired result Field 1 = at - pt = 1 Field 2 = at - pt = late example 2 pt = 13:14:25 at = 13:13:24 desired result field 1 = at - pt = 61 field 2 = at - pt = early example 3 input pt = 13:14:25 at = 13:14:25 desired result field 1 = at - pt = 0 field 2 = at …

Good Afternoon: I have a perplexing calculation that I would like help with, if possible. I am working on a large Human Resources Database using FM 7 Pro. I am trying to calculate years of service for an employee. I have the field calculating current date - hire date divided by 365 which returns the value fine. What if the employee leaves? I have a field for termination as a yes/no value list and then a field for termination date. I need my database to stop calculating years of service if the terminated field is set to yes. I have tried "IF" statements calculating current-hire date/365 if the value of the terminated field is "no" and another statement current da…

Assume the following situation: a Quantity field and a Price field in a child table. I just need the sum of the all the Qty*Price on the parent layout; I don't need to see the individual results (product per row). I can create a 3rd field in child table LineTotal = Qty*Price and a new calc field in the parent to sum LineTotal = Sum (LineTotal). I tried the formula = Sum(qty*Price) but did not work. I am just wondering if this is the only way to get the sum of (Qty*Price) from a child table. Thanks

Where I work we have a database for memberships purchased for our organization. Our memberships expire yearly, and we have a field where we enter in the expiration date. However, unless someone goes into an expired record and changes the person's status from "member" to "expired member," an expired member can potentially still show up as a member. This can potentially be a problem when we do a count of all of our "member" records (since we turn the number over to our board of directors, it needs to be fully accurate). Is there a way to trigger a field to deactivate at a certain date and time? Not that manually doing it is that much work, it just leaves a lot of ro…

Now this is interesting one. I am trying to com up with a way to enter data into a text field that CONCATENATE's values from 2 data bases. I want to be able to type what I want into a text field and have that text field be used by a calculation. Here's what I got Script Syntax: (Text Field user types into)= "CHANGEALIAS " & """ & FC_Users::Name_FirstLAst & """ & " " & """ & FC_Users::User ID & """ FC_Users is a related database. So I type that in to my Syntax field, I now want a field that will CONCATENATE, via a calculation and spit out: Script Calculation:CHANGEALIAS "Buildings & Grounds" "Buildings & …

Hi I'm after some food for though. We are getting data from a external supplier that is regionalised i.e.. Euro Germany UK Eire France Just creating a database from the supplied CSV/XML files supplied populates at the moment around 30-60k'ish records each. Ranging in smallest 21mb to largest 89mb Database. This information needs to integrate into an existing solution but will get updated weekly/monthly. My gut feeling is to contain all this data in the appropriate tables in a Supplier Info Database and create filepath relationships back/forth from the existing solution. But the MD says it would be better to cram it all into our exist…

Is there a way to check all repetitions of a repeating field for some pattern at once and if it does not exist, go to an empty repetition to enter a new entry for that pattern you were checking for ?? i.e. check for "Smith" Johson Jackson Sanjay __ __ so enter "Smith" or search for "Smith" Johnson Smith Frank then add some date of checking to the "Smith" entry in the repeating field notes for that repetition ??

this is probably an easy one. I need to place IP addresses into a field. Can I format the field so that the numbers are entered like ###.###.###.### of course not all IP addresses have three numbers in each section so hopefully it will not ask for three numbers if there is only one. But would be nice just to get the . automatically entered. Whats the best way to do this?

In order to create calc for a second date 10 days earlier than a entered date in "date1", 9/20/2006, for example: "date2" = ( DayOfYear ( date1 ) -10 ) as a "number" yields the value "253" In a new calc "date3", the value "253" returned as a date yields 9/10/0001. I see that the day and month are correct but the year is off. What am I missing?

In my database I have Project (parent) and Shot (child) tables. The child ID is Shot_ID which is has an auto-enter serial with unique validation. As I prepare for its launch I have been deleting all the records and testing the script that adds the child records. The script uses a portal on the parent table. The weird thing is that while the first record (Shot_ID="SHOT00001") gets added just fine, the second record (Shot_ID = "SHOT00002") triggers a validation error saying the Shot_ID is not unique. But I have debugged the script and can clearly see the value is different! All subsequent shots add fine. If I overirde the warning I get the kind of strange behaviou…

I attached a samplefile. I want a field to update based on the last portal entry. I have created a relationship to isolate the last portal record. If I create a calculated field it works fine. However, I would rather a regular field that autoenters with the same calculation. The reason is simple. The field will usually but not always be based on the last portal and the user may need to override the calculation. Please take a look. test.fp7.zip

Hello all, I'm a bit of a novice at building databases from scratch. Although I have took the available courses in my town, I still struggle with calculations and scripts. Right now, I'm working on a contact database and I want to avoid having the same contact entered more than once. I'm guessing it is a calculation set in the define field. What I would like is for a warning signal to come up when a new record is created and a combination of first name and last name is entered that matches a contact that is already in. I would really appreciate some help in figuring out how to go about this. Thank you so much!

Hi all,1st of all thanks for all help...here is my problem: I have 2 fields A & B A is contained Employees ID number (xxxx) B is container field for photo. In my employee's database all employee photo store under EmployeeID number locate in folder " D:Emp_Photoxxxx.jpg " Is there a way that i can auto data entry into field B a complete each path, file name for each record such as (D:emp_photoxxxx.jpg), so that when I click on field B it automatically load the photo. Many thanks...

I would like to have users click on either an icon or a button to display a pdf or Word doc file in FM7 (Windows). I have the pdf filename in a field. I made a button of a field containing a URL and it successfully starts up my browser and goes to the proper website. I can manually insert the pdf file into a container field in a record. An icon is created and it starts adobe reader and displays the file. But I don't want to manually insert each pdf file. I tried to import all of the pdf files from a folder using import/folder, but I get an error message - "No files of the specified type were found in the specified folder." Does anyone have an…

Hi all,1st of all thanks for all help...here is my problem: I have 2 fields A & B A is contained Employees ID number (xxxx) B is container field for photo. In my employee's database all employee photo store under EmployeeID number locate in folder " D:Emp_Photoxxxx.jpg " Is there a way that i can auto data entry into field B a complete each path, file name for each record such as (D:emp_photoxxxx.jpg), so that when I click on field B it automatically load the photo. Many thanks...

I kind of feel like this is something I should know, but is there a way to prevent a user modifying a field based on the value of another field? For instance, say I have two fields, "name" and "nameLock" and I only want to be able to modify "name" if "nameLock" is empty.

Hello all, I have been searching the archives for answers -- and have found information, but some is a bit old, and I wonder if there might be a newer solution. What I need to do is fairly simple, and common: Calculate the # of working days only (excluding weekends) between two dates. There are two scenarios: date1 -> date2, and date1 -> current date. Could anyone advise of a solution or point to an existing topic thread? many thanks in advance. julia

Hi all, I have been creating a Membership Database. I have members with existing numbers - starting at Number 1. Any new members, I wish to start off at 80000. However, what is happening is: I add a new member - it gives the correct new number of 80000 onwards, but when I amend details (such as an address) on an existing member the database then gives this amended record the new 80000 + number instead of keeping its original one. Could anyone please have a look at the attached file, and suggest where I'm going wrong. (I have uploaded the file to my server - the URL below is a direct link to download). http://www.box.net/public/stati…

I'm stumped on this one, thought I'd try the forums. I have a data base related to another data base. For the relationship I have defined, I get three related records for each record in my main data base. If I create a portal I can see all three matches for each record. I want to parse each of these values into 3 separate fields in the main data base. Using a calculated value for my fields I can pull in the first value using: GetRepetition ( relatedDB::Value ; 1 ) however, GetRepetition ( relatedDB::Value ; 2 ) doesn't work Last(relatedDB::Value) will pull in the last value I need to parse Value in my related DB to Value1, Value2, Value3 in my main …

Hi, I am in the process of modifying the stock Business Productivity Solution from Filemaker. This was made using USA date and system settings. Is there a simple way I can convert all of the databases in this solution to UK format? or do I have to change each date field manually? I have FM Pro 8.5 Advanced, if this makes any difference. Thanks in advance!

Hey All, I'm reposting this in what I think is now the proper forum. Thanks in advance for your help. I've modified the Business Productivity Kit. Everything has been going smoothly, but it has become apparent that I need some more foundational information. The User Guide gives very little information on Functions, Operator and what any of those pesky little symbols mean. I found the filemaker.com pdf file on functions, but putting it all together is another thing, eh? Anybody know where I could find a quick low cost source for info on the symbols and the rest? I guess that stuff is too basic for this site or maybe I'm just not searching in the right place. …

Is there any way to sort an address by the street name . . . in otherwords ignore the number in the address field?

We use many portals (columnar, horizontal, filtered, conditional, dynamic) – techniques picked up from Forums in the past. I have been asked to provide scanning option (in addition to these other methods). User wants to quick-scan portal rows by (various) alpha start characters, view quickly then scan again. They want to see the names right above and right below where they stop – no filtering; or filter then scan. I can do it now by running through each row of the portal under a Freeze Window. But I should be able to jump to row by calculation and I can’t get the logic of it. I can get the position of the letter requested (from a value list), example: A – Acme…

I have a file that I use to manage purchase orders. I want to have a field that calculates the total quantity of a certain product. ie on an order that has 3 different items I need a total quantity count on only the items that have the item# 13063. I'm sure this is easily done, but I am not very conversant with calculations unless they are very simple. Any help I could get would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, I'm trying without success to do the following... I have a portal with a Artist table as context. I have related another ArtLabourItems table in another file to the Artist table. Then I have a ArtLabourType dropdown field in the portal that defines an automatic value list from the ArtLabourType field in the ArtLabourItems table. This works fine. There is also a Price field in the portal that is defined as a calulation. When a ArtLabourType is selected from the dropdown I want the Price field to lookup its value via a calulation from the ArtLabourItems table. Basically I just want to select a value in the dropdown and then have other portal …

See attached file for an example of what the situation is. We have a job list for our company that keeps track of orders for customers and orders for testing equipment comming in. We have a field called "Total Sold" This is a sum of the Child database job items. Problem is, the sum is not stored, it is auto calculated on demand. The Thing is, I want to know how i can set up "Total Sold" To calculate only the quantity of the companies who are NOT "Inventory Test" Please help someone, our numbers are way out of wack. (We have items that we just got in, and we tested 300 of them , and only sold 5 so far, but our total sold is 305, it should only…

I have a situation where I have a calc: GetNthRecord (Filed 1; Get (RecordNumber) - 1) The problen is the Get (RecordNumber) is pulling the record number as the info was imported. If I create a seperate field that only has Get (Record Number) and I "Do not store calculated results" it puts the correct record number of the found set. Is there a way to have the Get (RecordNumber) inside the formulas recognize the current records in the found set? If not how do I can I pull that record number in and have it look up the previous record? Thanks for any help...

So (thanks to InkyPhil), I've got this calculation working on my FORENAME field: [color:black]Case(not IsEmpty(forename);forename;"(forename)") Great! But I'd also like FM to change the colour of the text if the value is ever "(forename)". Something like this might work: [color:black]Case( forename = "(forename)"; TextColor ( forename ; RGB ( 255 ; 0 ; 0 ))) Can anyone tell me how I get both of these calculations working on the same field? I think it's expecting a boolean operator between them, but the & operator doesn't seem to work. (The colour doesn't change).

I have a database that sums spending by brand. The database holds spending for an entire year and I want the user to be able to choose a date range to pull desired spending. I want to bring that sum into another database (I want to use a field to bring it in). I am having trouble getting that number into the desired database. I only want the sum of those records that are in the found set not the sum for the total records. When I use a calc field referencing the SUM field it brings in the total spend not the spend for the found set. Any thoughts on how to make this work? Thanks for any help...

I am putting together a clac that will be exported to an html file. Is there a function that allows me to enter text and ignore if it includes quotation marks rather than thinking that is the end/start of text?

I’m able to go (not even) half way and need some help with this one. I need to parse out text out of 1 text field and put the data in several fields. The basic text looks like this: ‘Variable length of text' - Definition 1 Meaning: Variable length of text Example: Variable length of text. Notes: - Variable length of text - Variable length of text 'Variable length of text' - Definition 2 Meaning: Variable length of text Example: Variable length of text. Notes: - Variable length of text - Variable length of text Where there will be always at least 1 definition, sometimes 2, sometimes 3..... Final goal is to have definitio…

When exporting a pdf file from a container field is there a way to name the file with the contents of a text field in the same record - then add the .pdf extension? Many thanks for any help.

Hi, Seriously Stuck! Basically I'm helping a friend out by producing a nice little database for his guitar shop. The Guitar Shop gives each item in the shop a separate serial number, at the moment they give these out manually but i wish to change that using filemaker. In short i was wondering if any one new how to allocate an "auto enter" serial number to different categories. e.g. For all Electric Guitars the serial has the letters GE in-front of it. This makes the serial read GE1234. now the problem I'm having is allowing that to raise by 1 and then also allowing another category e.g. AC to raise by one independently from GE but keeping them in the same f…

Good morning! Can someone help me with the following problem? I'd like to create a database in FM7 storing graphical information on a given scheme. Specifically, I would provide a graphical scheme of the coronary arteries in the database. The user should then drag and drop (or draw) one of several symbols onto that scheme denoting the degree of stenosis of these arteries. The symbols would look like circles filled 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100%. Is it possible to create such a database in FM7? Thanks for your ideas! So long, luke

Hello, I have a portal to keep track of all recent information for the contact. I have this information displayed in the contact information, everytime I enter new information I would like it to be entered in the contact information page and it currently is not doing that. I would like to know if it is possible to have the field display the mose recent information entered in the portal and where I can go to find out more about this, I have 8.5 advanced. Thank you so much!

I am new to FM and I just want to add a hypertext link to a text field so that my users can view a web page from my browser. I can do it with buttons, but when I make a new record the button get carried over and I don't want the same links on the next record. I want the person entering in the data to put their own link to the web. I have been scratching my head for 2 days now. Seems like an easy thing to do, so I don't quite get it!

Here is my situation. I've got various files which contain a value which is the date and time in seconds since 1st Jan 1904. Some files contain this as a negative value, others as a positive value. I have an Excel calc that handles both: IF(A1<0,DATE(50,1,1)+((2843274496+A1)/86400),(A1/86400)) You simply replace the A1 references to the cell containing the value, and it'll work out if it's neg or pos and then perform the correct calculation on it. What I'm looking for is a similar thing for Filemaker Pro, as I want to import the files into filemaker rather than use Excel. From the limited amount I know, I *think* I would need to define three f…

Currently I have a calculated container field which shows a button icon if the status of a request is "open" and is set to nothing if the request status is in any other condition. Im not really happy with the way the button looks... is there a different way to go about this situation possibly without using a container?

Hello, i newbie when it come to calc. I have DB of Student which i track Attendance, how many they miss, how many hours they need to make up, hours made up already. I need to figure way to find out how many student need make up. let's say i have 24 students, out of those 24 how many need make up? i can tell how many hours they miss, and how many hours they need. i was thinking of using how many hours they need to figure out who need make up. here is example james smith, Total hours miss: 21 Total hours made up: 7 Total hours Need:14 base on the hours need, how can i set up a calculation that will count those student who need make up. i…

Hello! I know how to get Filemaker to insert a default value into a field. I'd like it to restore the default value if a user enters a different value and later deletes it: i.e., if the value of a field is ever null, then FM should immediately set it to the default value (maybe "unknown"). Can anyone help me out?

Storing a file reference in a container field is an easy way to get to the content of a file, FM just opens the app the referenced file was created with. Every thing works fine as long the referenced files reside in your own machine or the files are gathered from a remote machine in the LAN by the Creator of the reference, however trying to get a file referenced by another user is not possible. What I am doing wrong? How can I get the content of a file referenced in a container field by other users in the LAN? Sure you can help. Salujdos, Javier

I have 4 number fields. Let say field 1 I fill in with a value = 1 field 2,3 and 4 will show 0. If I fill in value 1 into field 2, field 1,3,4 will show 0. If I fill in 1 into field 3, the rest of the field will show 0. How do I do this? dblentry.zip

I’m having trouble writing a calculation and could use some help. I’ve got a value list with eight items in it; Design, Photoshop, Editorial, Writing, Web Design, Programming, Photo-shoot and Meeting. This way, when filling out the time card associated with each project, you can select the appropriate activity. I have a sum field for the sum of all activities (total time) but can’t figure out how to get the sums of each activity (Total Design, Total Photoshop, etc.) to display in its own sum field. Thanks

To use a date expression in an exported PDF filename I would like to convert a date field (i.e.; 10/16/2005) into a text expression (i.e.; 051016) so that the PDF file will sort properly in a directory list. Is there a way to do this with a text calculation? Any help on this is greatly appreciated. ~Dennis

Firstly, apologies if this question is not quite in the correct place! I have built an events quotation solution which is working well, but having added the capability to review 'available' stock, the whole thing is becoming less responsive. Let me explain, and hopefully those more knowledgeable could shed some light..... Basically I have a data file with events, stock and hires tables. The guts of the thing are that an 'event' contains a start date and an end date, and items from stock are added to an event via a record in hires. One portal in the event layout shows all hires (related via eventID), and another portal shows all stock items (this can be filtered …

I'm trying to figure if I can use variables or should use a global field. I'm in a multi user enviorment. What is the best way to maintain say a users account number through their entire session.

Hi-- Ok. Having a very strange issue. I have a field set as my serial number. It's a number, with the option to auto-enter a serial, incrementing by one. But when I try to replace it's now empty contents (There are many records already, but I only just added the field itself) with a serial number in the Replace Dialog, it seems to process, but the field is still left blank at the end. I tried creating a new field, again with the same results. I then tried creating a script which went like this: GTRR [first] Loop Set Next Serial Value [invoice,myfile::invoice + 1] GTRR [Next, exit after last] End Loop This also appeared to be doing som…

Hi-- I have the following situation. I get transactions on various dates, and there can be anywhere from several to no transactions on any given day. If there were no transactions for a given date, there will be no record for any transactions -- i.e., there will be a skip of that date in the file. I need to get a count of how many dates had at least one transaction, but only count each date once -- i.e., don't include multiple records for a single date. Anyone have an idea of how to do this as a calculation (not a script)? All My Best, Jeffrey

The last thing I need to do is calculate the average of transactions taking place per day. For example, if a transaction for $24, another for $4, and a third for $75 happened 3/10, and then a transaction for $31 happened on 3/11, the average per day would be $67. I'm not sure how to get this average based on dates where there can be one, some, or even no transactions on a given date. All My Best, Jeffrey

I had an old Filemaker app I was using on a system 9 G3 Mac. With that combination, I used Filemaker a lot. One of the nice things I used to do was auto-fill fields with preset lists of correct entries. Now I have a G5 iMac with a system 10.3.9. The old Filemaker didn't work on the iMac. I had to update to Filemaker Pro 7. It works fine on everything BUT the auto-fill thingy. I have gone semi-blind reading the User's Guide, and I think I'm following the instructions, but I can't get any pop=up list or any drag-down list of proper entries when I try to fill a blank field. The Filemaker "Help" stuff is just as impossible to use and make the auto-fill work. Ha…

I'm new to file maker 8. In the old (pre-7) versions I could create a simple field that had calculation=1 so that I could link tables to all the values in another table easily. Now that we have evaluation contexts for each calculation, what is the best way to achieve what I want i.e. a simple field that always has the value of 1?

Are globals fields maintain for the specific user during a session or are they lost when another user connects

Say I have multiple records that each have a different car's details, and I want to get an avergae of the all the cars' speeds. How do I do that? Or If I want the sum of all values in all the records of a specific field. I need this urgently for a school project, and help with this matter would be greatly appreciated! : Thanks!

The 'TextColor' function wihtin the Custom Function (CF) is working for the fields formatted as Text fields, but not the Date field. I tried using a GetAsText (field) within the CF, but that didn't help. I've attached a file showing what's going on, it looks like a simple one, but don't they always ? Thanks in advance . . . TextColor.zip

I see this looking around Filemaker code I understand it a paragraph char and researching further its not in the Ascci code chart..however I did find somewhere saying it was a ÿ How would I produce it and what is its function when writing code.

In a text string I need to identify the word number that a particular word is in the text field. For example. "The cat sat on the mat". I need to know that the word "sat" is word no.3 etc. But I cant see which functions to use. Can anyone help. Please. John

I have a sign-up list for space usage that is limited to 12 people per period on the current date. There are 10 possible periods to sign up for during the day. (Periods 1,2,3,4a,4b,4c,5d,5e,6,7) The layout is called Space Sign Out I would like the to show either a running total of sign-ups left or the number already signed up for each period on the layout, Space Sign Out. I have attached the file in case you need to look at it. I have left only a small number of people in the file to reduce the size. There are usually 3000 student records. P.S. I am also trying to limit the number of times a person sign up to use the center to 2 times per week (7 day span…

Hi all, The following was done on a Mac with FM 8.5 with file running locally. I have a layout with 2 unstored calulation fields on it. One uses the function Get ( WindowWidth ) and the other uses the function Get ( WindowHeight ). While resizing the window manually by grabbing the lower right corner with the mouse, I was surprised to see the calcs updating "live", i.e the numbers updated as I dragged the corner. I've never noticed this behavior before and I don't think it's possible in < FM8.5. Does anybody know what's different in FM 8.5 that allows this to happen? Has anyone noticed similar behaviors with other calc functions? Thanks in advan…

I have seen several topics here on updating a global picture container in a multi-user environment. It would seem that the suggested solutions mention taking the hosted FMPRO database from the server and then open it locally independently of the server. I am just wondering whether global picture containers can or should be cleared by setting the field to "" on exit in a multi-user environment - or is there any reason for not using this procedure?

Hi Im having trouble sorting clause numbers ie sorts as 1.1, 1.10, 1.2 etc Any tricks for this? thanks

I have some survey results for one person living at an address. And I have multiple people living at the same address. How could I apply the same survey results to all people living at the same address? thx...jess

We have standard Contacts to Invoices to LineItems. Payments, credit memos and misc charges are all stored in LineItems. Business request is two-fold: 1) Allow partial disbursement of a credit memo. A major chain with 250 stores now wants to take 30% of a credit memo with each payment (geesh). Credit Memos are free-floating and can be applied against any invoice with a balance (for any store within that chain), reimbursed via credit card directly to the store or be deducted from 1 or many check payments. We need to track these disbursements like a small sub-table. I THINK the attached will work for the sub-table. I see no need to attach another table nor do I …

wondering if anyone has any tips on how to calculate someone's age from their date of birth to the current date. there doesnt seem to be any function that gives current date except for the time date stamp. would i use that in a calculation to create an equation that gave current age? i've played with the calculations and have not been able to get it to accept that as an option to so far. any advice would be welcome FileMaker Version: 7 Platform: Mac OS X Jaguar

I started using databases *after* learning about relationships and being a programmer. So, I avoid repeating fields entirely. Since this feature has persisted through 5 generations of FM that I have used (3-7), I guess it has some use. Can someone give me an example or 2 of a good use of repeating fields?

I'm tracking student participation in an after-school club for a grant-funded program and funders require lots of statistics to back up our reports such as the number of years students (and faculty) stay in the program. I have a 'contacts' table with basic information (name, address, contactID#)and participation information in an 'activeYears' table with one record/person/year related by contactID. A portal on the 'contacts' layout shows member participation -- one record/year. Works great. Now I need to summarize the information shown in the portal -- in other words, show total years each person has participated. That's easy too; 2 fields in 'activeYears' --…

FileMaker 8.5 allows a calculation expression in so many places ... but not in the "Display custom message" field of a field Validation. For example: I have a validation calculation that tests the field value for several conditions. When the validation fails, I'd like the custom message to specifically identify the error(s). With only the static custom message, all I can do is report a general error ("Something is wrong."), which is not very helpful, or report tedious list of possible errors ("This, that or something else is wrong."), which is confusing. [i've submitted this to FileMaker, Inc. as a formal problem report.]

Hi Everyone! I am attempting to import records. My source file is a text file. I need two number fields: Number field one = units, Number field two = percent. In the text file that was sent to me these two numbers are not comma or space separated. example a: 7584025.0000 should equal 7584 units & 25 percent. example b: 5100.0000 should equal 5 units & 100 percent. example c: 57085.5508 should equal 57 units & 85.5508 percent. Are you getting the picture? I quess I need two calculation fields that would break apart this one big number into my two needed numbers? Any ideas? It's probably an easy fix for the local FileMaker genius, but it's over m…

I'm kinda new at Filemaker, so appologies in advance if this is a dumb question. I have a database (fmp 8.5) which works fine in filemaker. However, when I publish it on the web, the buttons don't work. I'm not doing anything complicated, just doing simple stuff like 'new record.' Any ideas on what is going on?

Is there a way to make a date calculation auto update to the current date? The get(current date) function only works when the record is created.

Working on a work schedule. Using FM8A I've got this to work the way I want, but the cost in fields seems a bit much so I was hoping someone could look at what I have and see if there's an easier way. I've seen it time and time again so to avoid misunderstandings due to my ignorance, I'll just attach the file I'm working on so you can get your hands on the issue. You will notice all the fields used to count shift coverages. I'm wondering if the same result can be achieved using fewer fields. You will also notice the summary and calculation fields only work as intended when the last record in the set is active. I'm not that concerned about that because I …

I would like to attach a pdf of each job that is completed on our system to the job ticket. Is it possible to embed a pdf into the job ticket after it's creation, so you can quickly click on the pdf on the job ticket to give a quick reference of what the file looks like?

Hi, I was wondering if it is possible to create a "Scan Document" button within Filemaker (windows xp) that would initiate my scanner to scan a document. I am looking at storing this document in a container upon completion, and would like this process automated. Any help on how to do this would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi Not sure what forum this should go in.... Hoping you guys can help - first time using filemaker. I'm using it for my new business which is a dance school. Basically I need to keep track of people registered to the school, what classes they take in what term and what payments they should have made and whether they paid or not. I don't know if I've done it right but I've set up the following tables Person Details Term Details Class Details Assignment Details Person Details holds all the personal information and has a unique person id for each record Term Details holds all the term details Class Details holds all the class details - including the …

Hi, I'm new to the forum and new to Filemaker Pro. My database knowledge is just from this past weekend -- I was able to figure everything out for my database that I will be using for the local animal shelter (keeping track of donors/members). I was able to utilize (with a lot of tweaking) the contact management database, but I have run into an issue with the address label. I'm trying to figure out how to have names appear correctly on address labels. I thought that I had it with this calculation -- First Name & " & " & First Name 2 & " " & Last Name It works fine when I want it to show "John & Jane Doe", but if I have only o…

I'm trying to solve a problem in 8.5 involving a drag & drop action from Web Viewer into a container field. The example file below is a very simple example of Web Viewer. Two responses I received on the Web Viewer forum indicated that it works fine on Macs, but no one responded from the PC side. On my PC, neither of the container fields will accept images from the Web Viewer, but both will accept them from a browser running in its own window. I get the message "This file cannot be opened because it does not belong to this solution". Text strings can be dragged from the Viewer to either text field. I would greatly appreciate a quick test of this on ot…

This is going to be an odd question because I really am new to all of this. Hopefully I understand the question as well as the answer I may get. I am using FM7 Pro on a Mac G4 (OSX v10.3.9) I am reaching the Mac across a network to pull the database from a Windows 2000 server. I have no issues with this. When I get the database up, I am adding new entries to it and come to a "Stock #" field. It allows me to put in any amount of numbers in it (I have tested up to 30 numbers) but no alpha characters (other than in the first position). What I want to do is take the content and put in "H-12345" or "12345H"(for example) as the Stock #. It will allow me to put in…

Hi, I'm building a DB where I hope to be able to have a user drag a .txt file into a container field and then click a button to have data imported from the file now held in the container. The field holds the data without problems, and if I doubleclick the file in the container, it opens as text, and would I could find the proper link to make it work, I think I might be able to import it. Have any of you wonderful people solved a problem of this nature? How did you do it? Or, the main problem I'm trying to solve is to provide users with a simple way of importing data from a file whose name changes every day. I need to do a daily import of a text file that wi…

Greetings folks! Newbie here. Can you give me an example of a calculation that would allow me to add text fields. For example, I want to create a field that stores the combination of "Saluation" / "First Name" / "Last Name" fields. So the calculation result would end of being something like, Dr. John Doe. Thanks in advance for your insight. - - Jeff

I am trying to group individual sales by month on a report? I have tried calculating, but it is only summarizing in years, not months? can anyone help me??

I have a need to have a unique identifier created based on a calculation. A user needs to select a zone, which has a two-digit abbreviation. My calculation will take the zone abbv. and append a three-digit number and the first three letters of the name of the current month. The three-digit number (currently) comes from a serial number field, which increments by 1. E.G. User picks "Zone A", which has abbv. "ZA". This becomes ZA008SEP. However, at the start of each month, I need to reset my serial number counter to 001 so that next month I can have an id like ZA008OCT. What's the best way to accomplish this, preferably automatically? Cheers, Robert

Hi all, I'm designing a database to track the progress of projects and I need a field in which I can enter notes about what stage a project is in. I've been reading about portals but I think that's overkill for what I need but I could be wrong though. What I'd love is a filed that I can just enter lines of text in. I tried to make fields and just repeat them but the data is just duplicated when it's entered. Thanks for any advice on how to tackle this.

Do people keep a separate table for their global fields or store them in which ever table seems most relevant? Thanks, Linda

Hope someone can help me. I have got a number of fields with students pictures in them spanning kindergarten to grade 6. I am hoping to be able to display a current photo of the child regardless of what grade they are in. Teachers can navigate through a child's records from K to Yr 6. I want to be able to show only their current photo based on their current scholastic year. Hope that makes sense

There should be a color tint from a container calc behind the rows, not text. A picture is worth a 1000 words, and I'm betting the client needs to install Quicktime? Is that a must for Windows? Get results: Platform "-2" Version "5.2" I believe he just upgraded to XP and the latest service pack.

So I have a database that has lookup fields that populate when data is entered into an ID field. The problem is that this ID field is entered through CWP, and it seems CWP doesn't tell FileMaker that the field has actually changed, so the lookups never get populated. If you enter the ID numbers into the fields in FileMaker, rather than the web, the lookups work without a problem. To solve this, I tried to change the ID field to an auto enter field in which I used the Replace() function, basically substituting the original text for the original text, thinking this would "touch" the field. No dice. Any ideas? Thanks for your help!

Hello I'm using filemaker with ASP for our website - using it to list training events. One of the things for each training event is an automatic link to a booking form. We do this by having a New Record script that puts the following in a field: Download, fill in and return this form / Large Print Booking Form But because we need it to be a piece of text, we have to put quote marks around it in the calculation field so it becomes "" Unfortunately the quote marks around the href link confuses the calculation and it doesn't work. Can anyone think of a solution? Thanks

Once again, I genuflect myself to the FM gods and I'll gladly place a copy of MS-Access on the database alter as a sacrifice to you. The attached db is a work in progress, so its navigation between screens is a little rocky. I'm focusing on the LT (long-term) report section for now and will model the other report functions after it. If you go to the Long-Term_Costs_Report_Switchboard layout, you can see that a user can click on a button to select the desired category report. The first one, Asset Capital Loss (by Date) works fine. The problem is the scripting to create a report: there are two report types: one for xDate (or by Date), and the other xReport (by Rep…

Can global variables be used to provide an auto-entered text string during a record create? I've tried every combination I can think of to specify the Auto-Enter of a predetermined value ($$CurrentText). Simply placing $$CurrentText in the Data option indeed causes "$$CurrentText" to be placed in the field, but not the contents of the variable. Placing it in a calculation doesn't work either, nor with any combination of "replace existing". If I make the calculation read: $$CurrentText & "TEST" the word TEST shows up, so the evaluation is taking place. BTW, Data Viewer displays the proper text string in the variable before and after the record create. Is …

I'm working on a project that includes having TIFF images come in via XML. The image data is encoded in Base64, which I can decede easily enough with the Troi URL plug-in. However, I end up with the raw image data rather than an actual picture. How can I go about changing all of the garbage-looking text into a nice picture for use in a container field?