JSS

Thanks! You were right. I'm just starting with Filemaker Pro so I didn't recognize it as a slide control. I had to double click it to add the dots and/or go to a different slide.

I want to add a large text field where one can write notes, comments ... Because of the limited space, I added a new button "comments" to this object that looks like a tabs but isn't (I think). I'm using the default invoice starter solution in Filemaker 13. This already included the "invoice address" (left) and "shipping address" (right). Here's the situation I currently have: I added the button to the first view, but when I click the second button I probably need to add it here too? Obviously I need to add some sort of new object and name it "Comments". I've configured the button settings to go to object "comments", just like the invoice address and shipping address buttons are configured. However, how can I add a new object to this strange layout? If I go to my layout and click the second button, and then go to layout edit mode, then I can edit those fields. And when I click the first button and then go to layout edit mode, I can see & edit the first button's fields. But I can't figure out how to go to a view where both are hidden and then add a new blank object to this (and then add the Comments textbox to it). I checked out the info panel for the first and second buttons and their containerobject, but I can only see their Name and I don't see how they hide etc...

I created a VAT field. Now I would like to use conditional formatting when I enter a VAT number. I want it to make the color of the text green if the VAT number exists, and make it red if the VAT number doesn't exist/wrong number. To do this, I can use a calculation together with conditional formatting. However I need to send a request to an api and catch the response. Let's say it returns "1" if the VAT number was found, and a "0" if the VAT number can't be identified. Then it will be easy to handle it in the calculation. How can I talk to an API and let the conditional formatting behave according to the response? EDIT: Found it I think. I have an API that outputs "true" or "false" if the VAT is valid or not. If I create a (hidden?) web viewer, and update the webview each time with the new url when I leave the VAT field. Then I can use the GetLayoutObjectAttribute to get the content of the web viewer. And if that content contains true, then should a script update the color of the VAT field with a green color, otherwise red. I can execute the "Insert from URL" function in a script when I leave the field. This will insert true or false inside a hidden field. I use conditional formatting on my VAT field (green if hidden tmp field is "true" and red if "false"). I have one question left. I validate my VAT number when I leave the field, but also when I load the layout. However, when I load the layout I first have to click in a random field until the VAT field updates his conditional formatting. Any way I can refresh this field's formatting in a script? I can't let the script go to a field, because when I load the layout I don't have a field selected, and on the other hand when I'm filling in form fields I want to go to the next field after the VAT field (and not visit field #1 again).

I understand it. Found it strange at first that I needed to create a new layout, one that was not included in the default invoice solution of Filemaker. It works totally now, some values only need some cleaning (remove the first couple of blank lines from a text field, will look into the TRIM calculation?), and setting the taxable field to 1 with the replace fields functionality. I will try to look into scripting to write an import script to automate this all. Thanks for your help

Yes I do know what's going on with the invoices and their records (I use MySQL frequently). There's the invoices table (or whatever it's called in the english Filemaker Pro 13 invoice starter solution) with has the basic information about the invoice like date, invoice number, etc... And then there's an invoice data table (or line items) which has all info about items added to an invoice (the price, the item name, a relation number to the invoice by using the invoice NR) etc... However, there's no layout that uses line/invoice items. I created a new layout that uses the invoice items table, and I could import them. Thanks! I find this a bit strange though, creating a GUI in order to import/modify data?

Thanks. Will try to change the payment status after import. I'm working with Filemaker in a different language, so these names are all translations, which can be confusing (sorry for that). I'm working with the default invoice solution in Filemaker Pro 13. If I go to the invoices layout, I can add a new invoice. You choose or enter a customer name, and start adding items/products/services as rows in the invoice, each with their price & discount. That's what I mean with items in the invoice. And because in the old DB I have all my sold items in a single plain textfield stored in the old database, It's hard to distinguish different items and their price. That's why I would store all the text as a single "product/item" in the invoice. I can already import the basic invoice data such as the invoice number, date, customer nr, ... (= without the actual products/items with their prices). It makes sense to do a second import, but I can't figure out how. How do I do the second import to the other table? When I'm on the invoices or invoices detail layout, I can only import to the invoices table. And not the LineItems (or translated from my language: Invoice data table), because every other table is greyed out. Seems like Filemaker can only import to the table of the layout that's currently active.

I'm converting a very old invoicing application in DOS (written in 1990) that is still used everyday at work, to a Filemaker Pro database. The default invoice starter solution in Filemaker Pro 13 will do perfectly, but importing the 20 years of data is what's bothering me and I really could use some tips & tricks. The old database files are .dbf (dBase) files, which Filemaker pro can import, but the old database has a few different columns. The customers are already imported, but the invoices table is a real problem. The old database uses one table, and Filemaker uses two. An invoices table and an invoices data table. This is a very basic visual representation with left the old table, and right the filemaker tables: Problem 1: The TEXT column in the old database (left) contains the invoice data in plain text (on each new line a new product, with the count and unit price). Like this: What I would like to do is parse the text (regex? pattern matching?) and insert it as the invoice data in filemaker. Or is there a better way to handle this? If this is too hard in Filemaker, maybe I can convert the dbf files to a more usable format and write a script to recreate the table in a more usable way. The total & VAT will be automatically calculated by Filemaker. Edit: The TEXT often contains additional lines of info and other text, making it VERY difficult to parse. I would like to know how to insert the whole text block as one item in the invoice and set the TOTAL AMOUNT value as the item price (and use no VAT, so it becomes the final price of the invoice). This is a bit messy, but the important thing is that we can still see/search the past invoices of a client and have an idea of the invoice data. It will be a bit messy that every invoice has only one invoice item in it. Problem 2: In the old db I have a column PAYMENT_CODE which is blank or set to 'B' if it is payed. When I import the data, can I use if/else structures to set the paymentstatus to payed if the value = 'B'? How would this be done in an import script in Filemaker? Problem 3: How do I insert a default value for columns that I don't have data for while importing? For instance, the VAT checkbox has always to be checked (= value 1), the VAT amount is always 0,21, ...