The Left Brain

I have checked many different ways and cannot figure out how to solve my current problem. Can someone help me? What I am trying to do: I want to have a summary field that will display the count of records with the entered value during the data-entry step of a new record. Illustration: Field A (text) Field B (date) Field C (count number of records for value of Field A that are already in db) Field D (Max date for value of Field B, as it relates to Fields C & A already in db) What I need FM to do: (1) When a user enters value 'ABC123' for Field A, I want Field C to auto-populate with the next sequential value, which indicates the number of ti…

Hi there, I am trying to make a script or a summary field that will find the number of records with a certain value in the value list. Basically, each of my records is either listed has an "A" or "B" value in a field. I want to find the number of records that has an "A" in the field. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I often look to the amount due in my invoice file to search for late payments, but also to match received cheques. But, in Search Mode, as the amount due is a calculation of the total invoice - total accounts, FM takes a long time to recalculate the lines before showing the good results. And it is quite impossible to find it because my client cheque is of 1.250,50 $ while the amount due (because of taxes) is of 1.250,5002 $. So I enter 1.249,99...1.250,51 to find out, with same delay. What should be the solution for this problem ?

i am having a few probs find a way to compare to text fields i want my users to beable to enter text in to a global field by means of a check box and then have a script that will loop through the records checking for the text or 'checked boxes in another field and remove the text in the second field does any one now how to do this or have any clues how it might be done cheers Walker

I am hopelessly out of my depth! I want to swipe information from a driver's license magnetic stripe (AAMVA format) and have that data populate fields in a record such as the license holder's name, address, license number, etc. In addition to having a mixture of fixed and variable length fields, the data is separated by different field delimiters, including dollar signs and carrots. The data is also recorded on two or three tracks and each track begins and ends with % and ? flags. I can't find any plug-ins or commercially available solutions. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

here's one for you! I am creating a kiosk mode solution, so users will not see the OS X clock in the menu bar - so, I would like to display the current time on my layouts, and have it update every second, or minute... at the moment, I can display the current time, and it stays static unless I change layout. I tried writing a script that endlessly loops and refreshes the window, but that didn't work at all as it means the ApplePeriod icon is constantly up and even then the time didn't update! Any ideas??

I need to generate forecasting information based on estimates that are created in FMP. I am very new at this and have no idea where to begin. The following is the information that will be used. There will be an estimate total. We are actually two companies so the next step is to enter the percentage of the estimate that will be assigned to each company. Then, the timeframe for the project will be determined (not sure if it will be monthly or quarterly). Finally, the percentage that will be billed each month/quarter is entered. Some projects can take only one quarter while others can take up to 5 or 6. I can handle the fields and calculati…

Hi I have produced a membership database in FM 6 Mac & PC and I am stumped on how to solve the following problem: The database holds details of members using the facilities of a gym I need to anylayse the data and produce a report to see if any members usage declines from week to week - if so they will be contacted to see why I have all the data summarised I need exported to another database as follows: Membership Number (Number Field) Week Number Attended (Number field) Amt of Times attended for that week number (Qty) Persons Name (Text Field) I need to compare say this weeks attendance with last weeks attendance and if their is a declin…

Hi All, I am looking in to creating a Log database. I want it to log the activity of one of my dbs. before i start i was wondering if anyone has done this before and has and advice that they can give me. i have a few ideas but many brains is better than 1!! the db that i want to log is a tracking system so many happenings can happen on one record. i think i will use a relationship to input info in the log db using a unique id field from the tracking system. For those of you who have log dbs what info do you input into your log dbs thanks in advance amd Merry Christmas. ricardo.

Hello amazing problem solvers, I have a file called Courses. There is a related file called Sessions. There are several Sessions per Course. E.g. Basketweaving 101's first Session is on Dec 17, second is Dec 19 etc. Some Courses will run for months. To match with curriculum etc., I want to generate a Session number in relation to the course, (not a serial number). E.g. February 4th might be Session 17 of Basketweaving 101. So I want the calculation to be: of all the Sessions for this particular Course, this Session is number X. Or said another way: how many Sessions with the same Course ID are dated before this one? (plus one) Any ideas? Grateful Regards, Kay

This is probably simple, but I'm stuck. I have over 1000 account titles using up to 15 account numbers each, one record per transaction. Now I need to make a report: per title, summary of transactions by groups of accounts. I have the layout and the loop to clear the fields, check for account number, set field to transaction amount and do the calculations. BUT, I don't know how to tell it to: do the loop for each account title (as long as the title on the record is equal to the one on the previous record), and then clear the fields and start over with the next account title. Can anyone help me? TIA connie

Ive been looking around but havent been able to find much on the topic... Heres the situation; I have Schedule DB that contains 'show schedule dates' and the name of a 'location' among other things. I also have a Calendar DB that with the relationship of the date, will fill in a portal. This gives shows me all the locations that have shows for that particular date and works great. What I've been trying to see if i can do though is filter the results so it just shows the dates for ONE location that i choose. I could, for each restaurant, have its own schedule DB, but the problem becomes the opposite when ALL the restaurants need to be shown. Hope this all…

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I've gleaned some good info in the "Samples" forum for creating an audit trail for records. I have run into one problem that I could use some advise on. The auditing info works great on non-repeating fields, but with repeating fields [status(CurrentFieldContents)] it picks up only the first cell. Changes made in cell 2,3,4, etc are not detected and translated. My db contains both standard text fields and many repeating fields (it's a purchase order system). Any ideas?

I have a script which performs a find: Enter find mode (all check boxes de-selected) Set Field ORDER NO TEMP - ORDER NO & "/1"(result is text) Perform Find (all check boxes de-selected) Set to find all order numbers with a /1 at the end. It seems to work fine when i test it but for some reason when i go back in to the script e.g 2 hours later - FM has put spaces betwwen the text. e.g. " / 1 " Can someone please tell me why this is happening. I have just changed the step from Set field to Insert Calc Result to see if this helps!! Thanks, ricardo.

I'm working on developing a UPS Shipping Rate calculator to be attached to invoices so that shipping charges can be automatically determined based on destination postal code, weight, and service level. The only thing I'm stuck on is determining the destination "ZONE". For example, from my origin... postal codes that lie between A0A and A9Z (alphabetically) are in zone 11, B0A to B2T are zone 11, B2V to B3Z are zone 9, B4A to B9Z are zone 11, and so on (there are 115 ranges of postal codes, and 13 possible zones (zones range from 00 to 12). I will have a script on my invoice called "CalculateShipping". Which will first have to look at the postal code and d…

Here is a method I came up with for applying the weighted average method of inventory valuation in a FileMaker database. Please share your alternate methods, especially if anyone has figured out a reliable way to use FIFO! When product is received on a PO: Set productUnitCost = ((productInStock x productUnitCost) + (qtyReceive x poUnitCost)) / (productInStock + qtyReceive) here's the same thing only closer to English: Set the new product cost to: value of current inventory PLUS value of received inventory, ALL DIVIDED BY the new total inventory. At the point of sale, this cost would be recorded on the invoice and the quantity would be appropria…

Hello, I need some help and I hope I can explain this correctly.... I have a solution that allows the user to input date, work performed, amount of time worked, and total dollar amount for work. All of this information is entered in the Time Billing database which holds a portal to line items. All of my relationships are set up and I am only having problems with one final report. I would like to be able to generate a report for Work Performed During a Date Range (which includes, job number, date of work, hours worked, and dollar amount for work performed). I have been able to genereate a report that Groups all of the Jobs together like this ---- JOB #: ABC1…

I'm trying to decide what the best method would be to organize invoices and payments to have a reliable and flexible accounts receivable system. I'll tell you about what my little mind came up with... perhaps you could share what you have done... Here's my idea... Invoices database contains fields for invoiceTotal, invoicePaymentTEMP, invoicePayments, invoiceBalanceDue When you receive a cheque, you'd go to a "payments database" You'd enter the client number and the amount of the cheque in the payments database, which would relate back to the invoices, and show them in a portal with newest first. The portal rows would show invoiceTotal, invoiceBalan…

any ideas how to implement a system where records are created in a documents.fp5 file based on records in a templates.fp5 file for the storage and management of boilerplate contracts and correspondence?

I need some help with Filemaker repeating fields. I am inserting text into a repeating field. Only one line is visible. The rest can only be seen if you click on the line. Has someone come across a macro that would cut and paste text from the repeating field into the next cell below so that all the text is visible without having to click on the line? Otherwise, there may be a way to bring the text to the foreground. Using "arrange" and "Bring to front" does not work with repeating fields. Regards, Daniel

Does anyone know of the simplest way to calculate age in years? I have a field called "Birthday." Year(Today-Birthday) does not work... I have longer, complicated solutions, but am I missing some simple function? I would be happy to know of any web sites or books that archive common calculation solutions... or maybe this is the place! Thanks, Chuck

Is there any way to compare the data in a repeating field between 2 records and have the differences reported ? for example, i am designing a manufacturing schedule for a printing company that incorporates up to 10 different colours (repeating field) whenever changing from one job to the next , some,none or all of these colours may change. i would like to capture the differences ie: 3 same & 7 different. I would then be able to incorporate these numbers into costs and ultimately show scheduling efficiency. .....Haps

Hi All, I have db which the view field is colour coded depending on the age of a job. It works fine until the age of the job (days in production field) goes beyond 9 days old and less then 20 days old. The filed is a calculation the result being a container. the calc looks to a container field with 4 repetitions all containing different colour blocks and depending on the result displays the colour of the repetition. here is the calc Case( Job Done = "1", GetRepetition(Container, 3), Days in Production >= "3", GetRepetition(Container, 1), Days in Production = "2", GetRepetition(Container, 4), Days in Production < "2", GetRepetitio…

I'm looking to hear what some other users have done to organize their client databases where the nature of the business is made slightly more complicated due to circumstances like... Companies may have more than one person who is authorized to purchase from you Companies may have different contacts for different purposes (accts payable dept, etc.) Here's my idea... 1. Each company only has one record in the customer database. 2. Names, department name, and phone numbers are stored in a separate database file, entered through a portal from the main customer record. I am curious if this is the method others are using, and if so, what fields do you ch…

I'm facing the prospect of upgrading a collection of around 300 FM 4 databases to FM 6 in the near future. These files are workgroup databases and feature various relationships, Applescripts and ODBC links. Has anyone had any experience of upgrading a large, FM dependent business from FM 4 to FM 6? Are there any issues that I should be aware of? I've heard tell of ODBC links breaking, but not from any reliable source. Any and all responses gratefully received. Cheers, Tom

I have a database I have created that lists all of our standards. It has past and current editions. When I create a new record, I would like certain fields to reference the material (part) numbers from the previous edition so I know which ones to take down from our online store. Is there a way to make fields reference other fields in other records based on certain criteria?

Unique problem here - really hoping someone here can help! I have a loop set up to retrieve records dynamicly from a SQL datasource. The loop moves through a set of records, assembling a SQL statement in a calculation field and then queries the datasource for the data to import. The problem is that once the script has read the dynamic SQL statement once, it never goes back to read it again when it moves on to the second, third, forth record, etc. It's as if it sees the SQL statement the first time, then (even though I'm telling it to look again) it assumes it has seen the statement and never reads it again to update the query. Help! Client is gettin…

I have a calc display at the top of my menus. It's a simple display day/date as follows: DayName(Today) & ", " & DateToText(Today) However, at random (?), it disappears. There is nothing else in that space. I know that Vaughn has frequently recommended using Status(CurrentDate) over using Today. Is this one of the reasons, or is something else going on? I want this calc to ALWAYS display. Any ideas?

I have a check box Depending if it is checked or not checked I want to run a script that fills in content in another field. How do I have the selecting in a check box run a script? Thanks

I have the standard invoice-lineitem-customer-inventory system going. It was all going fine until I found out that my sales report -- that summed up the invoice line items, might not be accurate because items can be returned and/or exchanged for other item. Since the sales report decides on what royalties are paid out, this figure needs to be accurate. I already have a running sales and return totals in the inventory, but the twist is that all the reports are run for a certain date range to a simple running total doesn't cut it. My question is how to handle this? Add a field in the line items is the same as the quantity but gets subtracted if someone return…

Hi All, This may seem trivial but... i have a calculation field where the calculation is Status (current Date) now to me this should enter the current date in to the field, which it did when i created the field (yesterday) but when i look today it still has yesterdays date showing. i know i can easily sort this by inserting current date via a script but i need it as a calculation as it then doesn't rely on runnig a script. i'm using FM Pro 6. can some one shed somelight please. Thanks in advance, ricardo.

I'm creating a great circle distance calculator using latitude and longitude co-ordinates. Everything has gone well so far, but i need to be able to turn a calculation result to either a positive or negative figure based on the results of another field (either N or S). Can anyone tell me the best way to do this in a calculation field? I have tried to do this with logical statements but it's not my strong point. Many thanks in advance from a novice!

I know what you're going to tell me. Well, the answer is to pay attention to what I'm doing. But, what keeps happening is ... I end up working on another copy of my dbs. I have the original one, the newly cloned vs. 2 and a backup folder with 15 FM db backup folders. Occassionally I jump around to find old calcs that (at the time I couldn't get to work), that now I want to review ... and I've been really tired ... and the next thing I know, well I realize FM has opened from the wrong folder and this isn't the version I'm SUPPOSED to be working on. I thought maybe the 'relative path' selection was the answer ... some way to force FM to only look in it's folders an…

Can one, through script, program a routine that "disables" an entry into field or checkbox? For example: If a record has a status of "1" (open) checkbox 1 can be checked, if status is "2" (locked) checkbox 1 can not be checked. In VB this would be written: If textboxA.text = "Open" then check1.enabled = "True" else check1.enabled ="False" End if I am trying to allow or not allow field entry depending upon the record status WITHOUT creating additional forms. Any ideas??

I am trying to figure out the calc that would round a time field to the nearest quarter hour. IE: 10:00 thru 10:14 = 10:00 or 7:45 thru 7:59 = 7:45

scheduling db: Has anyone found a clever way to calc repeating date that are either sequential or non-sequential? i.e. Repeat event for the the next for days repeat event every second day until Repeat event every wednesday of the next two months Currently I have a full calc list offsetting date + 1 day and then I calc some substitutes. It is a bit clumsy and limited to 365 lines (days)

Hi All, I want to write a script where when the script is activated it will move 1 up the alphabet e.g Version field = A (run script) then version = B. i know i could do it using an 'if' statement where if version = A insert B or if version = R insert S. but is there a better way? hope i gave explained this ok!!!

Hi all I'm new to this forum, so apologies if this has been covered before / elsewhere! We use a filemaker (currently 4.1, about to be 5.5) solution developed over a number of years to provide job tickets, contact info, generate quotes, store product info etc - we do most of the correspondence in filemaker, so it's easy to relate to the job ticket. Is it possible to "link" other documents (eg word or excel files) by showing their file name in the jobticket and then making them into clickable icons that launch the relevant file??? Any thoughts would be appreciated Thanks!

I am trying to buld a DB that calculates my inventory. I have 6 inventory items. I have a Codes.fp5 file that I have all of the items and the item codes and beginning inventory numbers in. I have my transaction file set up to record indivdual uses of inventory items. I have a beginning and ending inventory field and an inventory_used field in a sub-summary part of the layout set to sort by inventory item. What I would like to achieve is a sub total of each item used(which I am getting) and then have that subtotal subtracted from the inventory item. I am getting the total of all items subtracted from each item. I need to subtract the total of item A from the begnning balal…

can i sum list of binary strings? I have a ten character string in each record made of one and zero (i.e. 1001011101) I would like to sum a group of these and find out where the zero are. 10010 00100 10000 00011 ------ 10111 I guess i am trying to find availiable spaces so with the above example i know position two is available. I know I can create a field for each postition and then max those relationships but I am curious if there is a trick. It is like when a single digit can conclude a group of three binary states, so when states 1-3 are identified as 4,2,1 then digits 0-7 can represent any combination of the three positions. So number 3 wou…

Ok, I'm building a parts inventory file that has the ability to track multiple quotes form different vendors for each part. I would like to be able to show the price breaks for any given quote: (i.e if you buy qty 0-10 you get this price,10-20 gets this price, etc) Because these vendor quotes are already in a separate related file and given that only 500 out of 10000 records will use this feature, my feeling is that a third related file is a waste / unnecessary burden . I was thinking perhaps a repeating field for the each of the breaks. The question is , however, how do we extract the right price when the user is entering the part into a PO. I was th…

I have a "Total Amount" field for each item in my Item db, how do I get the totals automatically calculated of related items in my SalesRep db which have many sales reps and can have or not have each item. The 2 files are related by an "Item No." the sales reps quantities are manually entered - but I wish to auto calculate the total of each particular product.

I have a customerorder.db which customers can view a range of products through a portal of a productlist.db. I want to allow customers to also purchase products from this. What is the best way to add an purchase function so it updates the available product qtys in productlist.db when a new record is created in the customerorder.db (taking into account previous customer orders.)

if my time or date calc equels blank ( "") how can I have the field result empty instead of a qustion mark.

I have 3 related databases. One is an alphabetical listing of teachers and the keys they carry. The second is a listing of the hook numbers (which is stamped on the key) and which rooms they operate. The third is an archive of who had which key in a previous year. The problem - There are times in my alphabetical database when the same key number is issued out to 2 different people. So, I

OK, I'm pretty sure I know that I can't do this, but before I give up, I want confirmation.. In a Calc Field, is there any way to specify that part of the results be a particular text format? For Example: The quick brown fox becomes.... The quick brown fox I know I can overlay multiple fields and such to make it APPEAR this way, but is there any way in just one calc field?

Hello, I'm using the Troi plugin to import eps pics into FMP 5.5. It's worked very well and I'm thankful to Peter for updating it to store a reference of the pic full size with high res printing. Now I'm testing moving this system to multiuser and have the following problem. When I was working on one machine I would setup a calc field to reference the eps that the Troi plugin would use - "FileMaker HD:Ad copy:#####" (##### represents the eps file). Now that I want to use a remote machine and have the Ad copy folder shared I've been unsuccessful in modifying the calc to pickup the shared folder. I've tried - folder only - "Ad copy:####" desktop - "Deskt…

I have a field called full name and a field called password. I would like to be able to automatically generate a password from this field e.g. my name is John Smith so I want my password to be the first 3 letters of my first name and and the first 3 of my second name, But I want to do this without using 2 fields for my first & second name. I can use 'left words' for the first 3 letters of my first name but how can I get the 3 letters of my second name?? PS there may sometimes be only 1 name in the name field.

I have a client that I've previously built a complete business management system for that includes everything that they needed except for a project management tool. This client is requesting features that are nearly parallel to MS Projects features. I've told them this, and they still would like it re-built and integrated into the existing FileMaker system. After a little research, I've found that MS Project can be connected to various backend databases (of Microsoft flavor... SQL & Access). I even found that they provide "scripts" to create all the necessary tables & fields that Project uses. (even found a Visio ERD of this!). Now, I know this is a long…

I want to lock records based on a field that is a binary checkbox (invoice sent;1,0). This is easy enough; now the wrinkle. I want to be able to quickly get into a mode where I can still edit the records without logging out/back in with a higher level password. I have played with creating a separate database that holds an "access toggle" but can't seem to come up with a calculation for the permissions that; 1) disallows editing of record when invoice sent=1 2) allows override of this when access toggle=1 Anyone have an idea?

Hi all! Sorry I've not been posting much, I'm in the middle of ifnishing up a project.Hopefully you guys and gals can help me, and I can get back to beeing an active newbie here. Here's the problem. I have a number field in my database that quantifies the sequence that the records are to be output in. This sequence is arbitrary, and set by the user, and so this field is the only place that the sequence can be gleaned from. I have another number field that measures how many inches tall each record will be when output (its complicated, and not worth going into. Sufficeth to say, I have a field thats a measurement for each record). What I need is a field …

can any one think of a way to create a value list that reduce in size as each item is used. Say the record is a project and there is a line item portal listing the employees are who are involved in that project, I would like the value list of employees to only show the name that I have not used.

Is it possible to get a running total to restart after each subsummary so I can see the running totals for each subsummary seperately.

I have a database that has fields: Full Zone, National Zone, Date, Day, Advertiser, Pgs, Type, Col, Inch, Total Inches, % of insertions, Sales #, # of Copies, Inch Charges, Total Charges. These are on a data entry form. I have an Insert Report Layout that prints everything listed and a trailing grand summary that summarizes pgs, total inches, # of copies, inch charges, total charges. Now I need on that same layout subtotals of the amount that is full zone, National zone, without separating them on the report like a sub sorting. Any help on this situation would be helpful. Thank you

This may not be as complex as I'm making it within my own head... but here goes: I have built a forms solution with life cycles and need to send emails within a filemaker script when the life cycle changes. My quick-fix is to use a global field with the email address of each approver that needs to receive the message. What I'd like to do is pull the email address of each approver from a related user table where an approver field is marked true. The relationship is built and works brilliantly as a portal. But how would I be able to use all the related people in a script step for Send Mail? Thanks for your help! It's Friday morning... I've been on this for da…

I am working on a database to track our work in process. I have a file that estimates are worked up in, a file tracking jobs and a file for billing information where additional billing info can be added that was not included in the estimate. I currently display information from the estimate and additional billing in two portals in the jobs file. The job and estimate file are tied together by the estimate number and the billing and job file are tied together by a job number. Is there any way that a user can click on a line in the estimating portal and move that information to the billing table/portal? I want to combine that information together to generate an invoice.…

i have a database of jpeg images which I have placed in container fields along with their pathnames in another field (path) I would like to be able to open any particular field path value with quicktime... I have tried every script command from send message, to dde execute, to go to field, select/perform and I have not been able to get it to work... The only thing i have been able to do is open url but that opens the path with either internet explorer or windows picture viewer... 5 computers with windows xp, windows nt, and mac osx...(fmpro 5.5) i'm looking for any working examples with the dde execute command because i can't find info on it (othe…

Hi All, This one is a bit confusing (well for me anyway)!! I import in to one of my Filemaker dbs from a dbf file. The dbf file resides on one of our raids on our sunserver. When i run the import from a PC it works no problem but when i run it from a mac it doesn't! I can get it to work from a Mac by opening the dbf on the raid from a Mac and then by saving it in Excel. This then works if i try it staright away, but for example if i try it several hours later it doesn't work again. Even if i mount the raid volume on to the Mac it doesn't work. Can anyone shed any light on this? Would be appreciated, Thanks, ricardo.

Hello folks, I have a couple of issues w/ FM 5.5 running an invoice solution on 4 computers connected via 10/100 switch with cat5 cables. Maybe somebody has come accross this and can help me out. The invoice solution consist of 6 files; Main.db5,Invoice.db5,LineItem.db5,Customer.db5,inventory.db5 and payment.db5. All files have Multi-User activated and reside on the Dell Xeon PC shared folder. The hardware consist of 4 computers; Dell Pentium 4 w/XP, Dell Xeon/XP, Generic Pentium 3/ XP and Generic Pentium 2 /Win98. First Issue. When I open the solution from the Dell Xeon PC, I can not open the any of the above files from any of the remaining computers on m…

I have done a data base with several files (11) relating each other, works as intended. I am lost at one point. Here is what I done and what I need to do. My creation has files Customer, Orders, Line item, Product Code, Product History, Products, Unit book price, shipping and Invoice etc. This works great, we have been using it for few months. One problem seems to be that we have over 3000 products in 35 categories and the unit price is based on qty. Currently unit price enters accurately when the item and qty entered, calculates fine with all other related charges. However, when we make changes to master unit price file all old invoice reflects the new price…

I am writing a database for a newspaper classified system which involves inputting text into a field. Does anyone know of a way of carrying out a word count in a field and then for the resulting calculation to be transferred to another field.

i didn't know which main topic to put this under... multi-user environment...windows xp host...with 2 nt, one mac os x, one windows xp (fmpro 5.5) i would like to have filemaker as an email client for all employees..however, i have tested all the email plugins and none of them offer smtp authorization (as of yet). (i've tried dacon's, dbmail, comm-unity, etc.) I'm using dsl like but our mail is not thru same dsl service and the company has had email id's for years. my main problem is figuring out a way of receiving emails in such a way that either entourage, outlook express, or outlook can import them into filemaker (somehow automatically)... sending ema…

In Approach and Access, formating a field to display as a Social Security number is a simple right-click, select type to display as SS#. I'm just beginning in Filemaker and want to display newly imported fields this way. How? I've searched everywhere and I'm so tired it's probably right before my eyes! I'm impressed with Filemaker. I chose it because our agency is 50-50 PC/Mac and I want to publish to the web. BUT, some things that are very simple in Approach are mind-boggling in Filemaker. I have MUCH to learn! Any help would be appreciated. BTW, I would LOVE to get my hands on these great icons! LaRetta

At the company where I work the sales and product people have slipped some component items into the product DB and failed to ask if it was set up for that. So now I have to put that part together. I did a search of the forum but could not turn up any results. If anyone can point me to some relevant post or provide some basic strucural tips I would appreciate it, especially regarding inventory control as some ot the items will be only components but some will be sold individually as well as be a component of another item. I have done a lot of filemaking so I not worried about putting it together but at the moment I cannot put the picture together in my head. Must be Frida…

Hi Everyone! I've developed a database that runs on Filemaker Server with about 10 users that acts like an internal mail program. What I'm wondering is if there is anyway of triggering a script on other users computers that would alert them that a new record had been created in the "Mail Database". A sort of "You've got Mail!" message. Right now, they have to periodicly go into the mail database to check if any new messages have been created. If anyone has any suggestions, it would be much appreciated! Cheers, Christian Knudsen Toronto, Canada

I have a subsummary report in my gifts database that breaks down my constituents by type, alum, friend, etc. I want to be able to capture how MANY alums or friends, etc. gave based on this subsummary. I want to be able to count the constituent ID but each ID occurs several times in the gifts database and I was wondering how I would right a calculation that would only capture the Constituent ID once? I thought about trying to write a looping script but it seems with the amount of gift records I am processing that this would take a long time. Any suggestions? Thanks, Marcelle

I am working on a database to track all the purchases our department utilizes. I have set up a field that calculates the sales tax for each county and set up a Total field that calculates all the costs associated with the purchase. My dilemma is that some items we purchase do not include sales tax. What can I do to remove the sales tax figure from my total in those situations? Also, the sales tax percentage comes from another database that I created a relationship to the specific city I enter in the purchase database. HELP!!! Thanks. Cindy

Hi guys, Here's a question for you - I'm sure that there's an answer to this somewhere! In Filemaker 6 I believe that you have the ability to drag and drop images that have been uploaded from a digital camera. But, to my dismay, Mac OS X can actually import directly from a USB digital camera! Buggers, why create a feature and expect everyone to upgrade to Macs all over the office - surely cross platform means it should be possible for FEATURES to work on both Mac and PC!!! Anyway, I am writing a medical database for a cosmetic surgery and they are not computer literate. If filemaker will accept a hard disk location for an image instead of putting the ima…

Boolean fields are fairly common and can be handled a number of ways; each way will have certain advantages and disadvantages. What do you experienced guys consider the best way? The basic discussion of Booleans is as a Number; 0 for false and non-zero for true. But if a Number is always stored as a double-precision float, that's not really the most efficient mechanism. Worse, its kinda clunky when it comes to presentation... A checkbox is always a cool way to present Booleans. But with FileMaker, it seems that approach makes it difficult, if not impossible, to search on. And Booleans are commonly useful in Finds. So, I rejected that. My next favorite…

Hi, I'm wondering if the following is possible. So far, I've asked many people, and no one knows. This forum is my last hope. I have 2 related files. File A has a dropdown list with about 10 choices in one field. Each of these choices is the payment conditions of a certain client. File B has one field showing the date on which a particular job was performed, and another field that is a calculation field that should tell me when I should be paid depending upon a date calculation. The problem is, there are about 10 different payment calculations that are possible for each job. Which one to apply needs to be determined by the value selected from the dropdown …

We ship world wide, and I'd like to create a DB where a user can put in their destination zip code and get a transit time. The times will be based off of prior user entries. Are their any preset zip code software for FM that could track this info. I can always do the simple "find the location closest to you" and have them do it manually, but if i could have it go off of a zip cool that will add to my "cool" factor =). I'm hoping that each user will input that info and we can have a pretty comprehensive DB of transit times. Thanks. -j

Hello members! I have a line of text which I am having difficulty parsing into appropriate fields. Example: "Ridgefield, Ct 10035 USA". This is a line from the billing address form on my web site. City, State, Zip Code, and Country are all individual text fields which the customer fills out. The problem is that the software that decrypts my orders downloads into un-dilemmanated text which means that I have to parse the data before it can be imported into a proper database. This means my example of "Ridgefield, Ct 10035 USA" is one un-dilemmanated line. What I want to do is to get Ridgefield in one field (some cities have more then one word, like New Haven), Ct in a…

How does FileMaker store Numbers? IEEE Single-precision? IEEE Double-precision? Multiple-precision? Fixed-point? Text? This can have dramatic effect on applicability. For example, if single-precision float, then its wholly unsuitable for many financial apps. But obviously fixed-point (good for accounting) wouldn't work well for scientific and engineering apps. Multiple-precision would be best, though it could be very expensive. How about calculations? What form are they done in? Similar points, though somewhat less critical, if the app designer is careful.

Okay, when you click "unique" in a field definition, I assumed that FileMaker put a check on every change of that field such that its not possible to get a duplicate. NOT true!?! So, where are all the loopholes? Or if its a shorter list... when does FMP bother enforcing that? A quick check shows that FMP itself will violate the flag when auto-entering serial numbers. I assumed (wrongly) that it would continue incrementing numbers until it got one that was unique... but no, it happily corrupts its own databases. Pathetic. So, it would seem the only way to guarantee a unique ID for a record is to use FMP's own ID... the CurrentRecordID. FileMaker guara…

In the old days of data storage, much effort was put into defining the lengths of Text fields as that allowed for fast access and minimal storage waste. FMP seems to make no mention of it, other than as a validation criteria. Given minimal hard disks are 40GB these days, it does seem to make sense to ignore that complexity. However, the basic docs never mention speed or efficiency at all... and I *know* those remain issues... there's always someone needing a bigger database. So, there are some things I wonder about... If you specify a field to have max length, does that result in increased efficiency or reduced space consumption? If you store a Boolean as eithe…

Hi all, I have a client who has a solution with two different table types. One of them uses US-style date and decimal formatting (from a US version of FMP), and the others use European-style date and decimal formatting (from non-US version of FMP). The problem is that various tables in the solution originated from various sources (why? I don't know). This is not a problem for any display options, as those can be dealt with easily. The problem lies in data entry. A US version will not allow users to enter a date in Euro-style (DDMMYY), nor will it accept decimal 'commas' as is common in Europe. (For example, in the US it's $2,500.25, and in Europe $2.500,25). …

i have a script that performs a find based on who logs onto system if the person has 1 message, then i have a field that displays that text'YOU HAVE'text field'HOW MANY MESSAGES' text'MESSAGES'text I've discovered a problem. When the script performs a find and there are NO messages, it displays nothing in the HOW MANY MESSAGES field. Is there a way around this? (I have unchecked do not compute if referenced fields are 0 on all fields...i have tried with indexing on and off...) thanks

As my business grows I spend more and more of my time driving to clients to update their solution. I want to automate this with one of the commercial installers. Manually, I do these six steps. 1) Close FMPS 2) Launch FMP and Perform a script that saves a copy of file into an underscore file. 3) Bring in new copy of file from CD 4) Perform a script in new file that imports the underscore file data. 5)Quit FMP [Repeat steps 2-5 for each file to be updated] 6) Relaunch FMPS. Here is the problem: How do I make an Installer (any brand) trigger FMP scripts??? Or, is there a better way? Thanks, Mike

just a quicky!.. will modifying a layout on a hosted db cause any problems? i want to remove some fields from the layout and move some other fields about without taking it off-line, basically because it is an a**e getting eveyone to log off as the db is contsantly been used. I can't see it been a problem - but better to be safe then sorry! gracias, ricardo

is there a way in a multi user solution to have a list of logged on and logged off users for everyone to see... I'm using filemaker 5.5 multi platform...not server each user has their own password and is assigned their own groupname...there are about 15 files with a main menu.. thanks

I have a Database that imports records from a text file. The text file is on a server run Solaris. It works fine from a PC but when I run it from it from a Mac Get I get a message 'There are no records for import'. I know this doesn't contain a lot of info so let me know if you require anything further?

Hi guys - quick question - Is there a way of optimising the speed of portals that only have 12 rows and vertical scroll bar? In the portal row I have one repeating field, and two other fields and it keeps on refreshing the screen sooooooo slowly and then when I click off the screen it does it again - it's NOT BIG but it's not QUICK either!! Why it feels the need to adjust non affected data I just don't know! Surely there's away of stopping rows recalculating their freshness if they are not affected by any updates - it wants to update the entire portal link which is tedious!! When I'm showing a database to a client, I don't want them to think that it's slo…

Hi guys, Is there an easy way in an appointment database that you can make the database look through the rest of the database to see if an appointment time, meeting room or person already has a meeting? I'm sure that you can create an entry screen for an appointment request and then create a SUBMIT APP REQUEST script to lookup the rest of the database to check the time, person and room and ask for confirmation of availability. How do I enter a person's name and then for it to not allow appointment at a specified time by using a calculation that references the rest of the database? This is to be used for a medical practice where an allocated time slot is re…

Are there any voice recognition programs that can be used with FileMaker?

Guys, another one for you - I hope you're in the mood? RE: The same O' same O' - Appointment scheduler Let's say I have four operating theatres. I have easily set up Four portals that do a relationship based upon a combined field of - Appt Date & " Room " & Room Number. Perfect Now, it give's me a list of all the appointments - which is what I want BUT... I would like it to be listed down the page on the corresponding line of what time the appointment is! So, I was thinking, because each of the items in the list of appointments is a seperate record - I want to be able to combine each of the appointment times into a SUM of porta…

I'm new to filemaker and i have no idea how to start this little conquest. I'm make a client database for my home business. I need to creat check boxes within file make that hold body's of text. Ex. I got to a client and they would liek web services from me. I click on the web services check box and a 4 page description is inserted into the clients send out letter layout. There are serveral different services so i need check boxes for them all can someone help me.

Aghh, I did this once and it didn't post I'll try it again. I need some direction, I am new to FMP and am unsure on how to do things. I have the FMP Bible (the greatest series of computer books on earth) and have a handle on FMP, so really I don't need a step by step but an "ohh, use this..." type of answer. If I have questions I will come and ask. Okay I am making POS and Inventory software. I am having some issues with the inventory but I'm dealing with that in another post. I need the POS software to do three things, one is that it contains a shopping list. When someone scans in a barcode or finads an item in the database I want the person to add that item to a…

I have two DBs simple single column list portals on a layout. I need to provide a move right >>>> button and a move left <<<< button between the portals. The object is to select an item in a portal and click the button to move the item to the other portal. Any ideas on how to do this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I am yet updating an older database. One of the functions is a top 5 list. Where it has a city, a number field (to be sorted by) and some other field I don't understand . Anyway, the 5 of each fields are separte (not repeating, the is one of those times I wish the person did use repeating fields) for a total of 15 fields. Right now they sort them by hand, and want it automated. Problem 1: The data that is in these fields is copied out a paper report, there is no database to relate this to and have a sorted portal. Problem 2: they are not in repeating fields, I can't use an old fashion sorting routie (like a bubble sort or something), and i don't really want…

I am not sure if this is the correct forum, but here goes. We are using FMP v5.0 on a PC (Win98 soon to upgrade to Win2000). We open a database and attempt to delete a record from it. The window appears to confirm the deletion, but after you click OK, an error appears. The error is that the record can not be deleted because the file can not be found and a file name is listed. It is not the name of the file that we are using. The filename in the error message is not found anywhere on the PC. If we change the name of the file to reflect the name of the file listed in the error message, then the record will delete just fine. The records will only delete if the file is named …

OK geinuses, I have a sales databse. Nothing fancy. List of stores, and Invoices, Lineitems. Invoices are generated basically weekly for each store. But I want to do some statistics for inststance; -SLOPE- What is the rate of change of the invoice total over the last month? I want to be able to identifiy stores whose purchases are on the decline so I can call them to see what's up. I seem to have hit a brain freeze on the subject. Any help appreciated. Jerry

I would like to report on three salespeople over three months by month and by salesperson and to have each persons monthly sales added from the previous month in a running total but only by salesperson. I can only get it to running summarize all the salespeople figures together not just by salesperson only. Is this possible?

Is there a way to "lock" (i.e. prevent any changes) to a particular record from specific users when a certain field has a specific value? I'm trying to keep users from tweaking a "posted" record, thanks.

I am creating a database for Conference Registrations that will keep the name of the attendee in one file, the items for which they can register in another and the actual charges and payment information (technically an invoice) in another. The reason for this is that some attendees add things on to their registration at the last minute this seems to me to be the best way to accurately track payment and deposit information and actual numbers of attendees. Seems straight forward on the surface, however for each event they have to register for there are two prices - a before certain date and after certain date price. Now, do I have to create a separate line item …

I am making a workorder for a clothing printing operation. For the factory floor, they need a workorder showing all info needed to make and print an item. For every order of clothing, there can be any number of images printed in varying locations, using any number of different colours. The schema goes like this: Invoice -< InvoiceLineItems -< LineItemLocation -< LineColour, ArtDB If you're still with me, I've made various layouts to add a colour to art for each location. My problem is putting this printable form. I have the workorder in the InvoiceLineItems that list all the LineItems on the invoice. Right now I use a portal to list th…

Hello, I am recording job cycle times. Each job is represented by 1 record. Each job (record) could be done more than once. Each time i need to record the seperate times. iam going to do this by having another db which will have recordings of job cycle times. This will be related to my Job database. Is it possible that every time a time is recorded for one job (record) it creates a new record in the Time db? E.g. 1 job (record) is carried out 5 seperate times and so has 5 seperate time results, so creates 5 records in the Time db. i'm not sure if this is possible by using the 'allow creation of related records' feature under relationships? …

Ive been struggling with this for some time. Is it possible to insert text, calculation etc automatically into the first empty field of a repeating field? I have found an option to insert into any one of repeating field but not a dynamic one depending on what is already in the repeating field. Thanks

I would like to paste search string ( "<01/01/02" ) into date field, but the calc string must result as a date and ends up as a question mark.

hi everyone, i was wondering if there was a way to create/duplicate lets say 5 records using a calculation or script. what i want is to ask how many records you want to create and what ever number is in that field it will create that many records. thanks Peter