jnmorrison

I have a project coming up soon where I will need to write a FileMaker database which will be accessed exclusively via a browser, both locally and on the web. I've done quite a bit of FileMaker development but none on the web. I understand that Instant Web publishing is not the way to go...as I'm going to want to design the look and feel somewhat myself and I'll need more control than it allows. To my point...I need resources on learning more about publishing FM7 databases on the web. Can anyone suggest books, web sites, tutorials, sample code, anything that I can use to guide me through this process? I've looked at a few books about FileMaker 7, but I fear they focus very little attention on this aspect and I don't know which, if any, would be worth the effort. Please help...thanks!

I have a project coming up soon where I will need to write a FileMaker database which will be accessed exclusively via a browser, both locally and on the web. I've done quite a bit of FileMaker development but none on the web. I understand that Instant Web publishing is not the way to go...as I'm going to want to design the look and feel somewhat myself and I'll need more control than it allows. To my point...I need resources on learning more about publishing FM7 databases on the web. Can anyone suggest books, web sites, tutorials, sample code, anything that I can use to guide me through this process? I've looked at a few books about FileMaker 7, but I fear they focus very little attention on this aspect and I don't know which, if any, would be worth the effort. Please help...thanks!

I have a copy of FileMaker 7 I wish to sell. I bought it, opened the box and started to install then realized I needed the developer version. This software is new and NOT licensed so it is 100% legal and includes support from FileMaker. I'll sell it for an even $200 or best offer. Thanks. Jeff

How do I test to determine that a certain window is open? I'm making a menu layout which will open in it's own window IF it's not already open. If it is, I'll have the script simply activate the window. Can someone help?

Is CDML supported in FileMaker 7? I'd hate to invest the time if it's not. I'm currently developing using 6, but I'm sure I'll switch to 7 soon enough.

I'm an experienced FileMaker developer, but brand new to web publishing. I see many people suggesting CWP for FileMaker use on the web. Can you point me to some good, helpful resources online to learn more about it? Thanks!

Developer is a good investment. Developer is a full copy of FileMaker 7 with extra's built in. So, you get all the functionality of FileMaker and the ability to lock it down or even make stand-alone applications. With the custom functions in Developer 7, there is even more reason to buy it. Best part about owning Developer...you have much more options at your disposal.

Do you mind posting a link to those?

It's pretty sweet so far. Anyone know how to use the custom functions yet? Version: Developer v7 Platform: Mac OS X Panther

Has anyone seen or messed with the custom functions available in FileMaker Developer 7? Apparently, you make functions and you can use and resuse them throughout your database, sort of like nested scripts within scripts, only better. I have no idea how to use them yet, but I can't wait to learn. This feature alone justifies the purchase of Developer 7, since it's not in FileMaker 7. The best part...once you make a custom function, it stays with the file and is available (but not editable) from FileMaker 7! Sweet. Other than this, I don't notice any major changes in the Developer version. Still, FileMaker 7 is big enough to tide me over! Jeff Version: Developer v7 Platform: Mac OS X Panther

How is the best way to round time? I need to round time to the nearest 1/10 hour and the nearest 1/4 hour. Can anyone suggest a good way to do this?

Thanks for your help, all.

I usually create a "RelateAll" field in each file I make, of type Number, and have it auto-enter on creation the number "1". Using this instead of the cConstant calculation field works as well. Any advantage to going with the calculation constant rather than the number constant?

How much sluggishness are we talking about, in your opinion. Here's why I ask...if I make it a script, it gets much, much harder to manage. What happens when the manager goes back and alters the time on a particular punch record or deletes a punch record. Wouldn't I then need to loop through records re-applying the script? Jeff

Actually, I think that might get me there. Then from my timecard file I can get a sum of this new calculation field. AverageField = dailyOT / Count(SelfJoin::Record_ID) Then from the timecard I can get the sum of the Average Fields for my total daily overtimes. Sound right?

Not sure that I understand. If the SelfJoin was built upon the record, it would only look at itself instead of all records for that day. Then I couldn't get a total for all punches for that day? Explain, please. Jeff

Let me see if I can explain this clearly... I'm building a punch clock app. The two files in question are "timecard" and "punches". Pay periods could be of any length of days, and are identified by a pay period ID (number). I'm trying to account for daily overtime hours. An employee punches in and out...which creates a record in the "punches" file. They will most likely create multiple punches in a single day. I have an overtime field in the "timecard" file which holds a time value. (number at which time begins to be overtime. It will most likely stay at 8:00:00, but the user can change to any value.) So, here's what I need to be able to do: For each day in the pay period I need to determine if the total time of all punches has exceeded the value in the overtime field (8:00:00). If it has, I need a total of just the amount which has gone over. Now, within the "Punches" file, I created a field which, using a self relationship to the same day, returns the total over the overtime field. However, every punch record for that day now has that value. Because of this, I can't simply get a sum of that field for all related records in the pay period. Example: Overtime field is set to 8:00:00 Punch one on day one is 6:00:00 Punch two on day one is 1:00:00 Punch three on day one is 4:00:00 Daily overtime calculation field reads: 3:00:00 The above data is all for "day one". So, I have three records with the value: 3:00:00 in the daily overtime field. I can't get a sum from the timecard since it would total: 9:00:00 when it should be 3:00:00 Forgive me if I've gotten too wordy or over-explained this. Any suggestions anyone?

Time Clock Jr, version 3 is a FileMaker-based Time Clock solution. Available in single or multi user, and starting at only $39, you can't go wrong. http://www.conceptualize.com

Create a new layout viewed as form, not list. On this layout, click and drag a marquee box using the type tool. This will create a text area which will re-wrap. Now, just type your letter. Any place where you wish to use the client name or address, etc...just use the merge field command, found under the insert menu. This will insert the contents of the field you choose into that area of the letter. Switch to browse mode and try it out. Move from record to record and watch the data change. To print, you can navigate to each one and choose File: Print, which is the manual way, or you can use a loop statment after performing a search for the exact items you wish to print. Read up on merge fields, loop statements and form letters. I think there are even examples on the FileMaker CD.

Bob, The lightbulb finally came on and I understand what you are getting at. I new there had to be a better way than needing the extra table to keep up with. You were right, I was making it way too complex. Thanks so much for hanging in there and helping so much. Can you explain what the Mod function does...I can follow the rest of what you are doing, but this one is not quite clear. I don't want to simply copy your code...I want to understand why it works. Thanks so much for all your help. Jeff

Sorry I haven't been clear...let me try one more time... I want the end-user to be able to change the pay periods to whatever they want them to be by giving me a begin date and the type of pay period. I then have a script which loops through all the records and assigns the pay period. So, you see, pay period one could start on January 1 or it could start on May 12th. The user will define. It could be any day of the week and any month. I have a script which takes care of assigning the pay period based on the input I receive from the end user. So here's the issue...I want to identify each record by when the pay period ends. So, from another table, I want to lookup the date and see that it is part of a pay period which ends on a certain date. Every date will be associated with an ending pay period date. Now, the end user may want to change this, which requires my script to renumber all the pay periods. That's no problem. The issue remain re-assigning the payperiod ending date field. I hope this makes better sense. Sorry I've been so unclear. Jeff

Ok, at this point you must be getting very tired of me, but once again, here I am. There seems to be a minor disconnect in the information I'm explaining. Bob's solution is great except that it assigns the dates within the pay period for me which i don't want. I've already assigned the pay periods in the database...I now just need to evaluate all items in pay period one and determine which is the ending date, then populate the ending date field in each of them with it. In other words, I may need to change the pay period assignments at any time, meaning I'll need to execute another script to re-evaluate. Today pay period 1 may include 1/1/2003 thru 1/14/2003, but it may change so that pay period 1 includes 1/5/2003 thru 1/19/2003. This script (or calculation) needs to evaluate the pay period fields rather than the date fields. The ending date is simply what I want to copy once the script finds it. Jeff

One more thing I should have mentioned. In this example it is 14 day pay periods. I also want it to work for 7 day or even bi montly or monthly.

If I understand you...yes. When you use the Pause/Resume script you leave it as it (do not define a time to pause) and it will pause until either the continue button in the status area is click or until the user hits the "enter" key. You could also give them a button which resumes the script.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure you understand what I need...so let me try to explain better. I have a filemaker database called Pay_periods.fp5. In that database are records, each only having 3 fields: uniquieID (this is auto-numbered), date (date field) and pay_period (number field). In this example, each pay period has 14 (bi weekly) consecutive days. So, January 1 thru 14 (14 total records) all have "1" in the pay_period field. January 15 thru28 have "2" in the pay_period field. I have a record for each date for the next 10 years, approx. 3650 records...all divided up into 260 different pay periods. I want to add a fourth field which will display the highest date in the pay period. So, in pay period "1" it would display 1/14/2003 in all 14 records. For all records belonging to pay period "2" it would display 1/28/2003, and so on. For the sake of this discussion, we'll call this new field Last_in_period. It would be great if I could make this a calculation field so that it wouldn't require running a script, but I can't think of a way to do it. A script would also work that could loop through all 3650 records and assign the Last_in_period field.