Skye Ridley

Thanks for your reply! You're very right; and I've set up buttons to execute sort scripts for the fields I think they'll sort on most often. However, this is for a solution that will be used by a wide variety of small nonprofit organizations (NGO's). In my experience in that field, one never knows how a user will want to sort. Darn it, I wish Filemaker would let us specify the field names w/in the scripts instead of forcing us to do that silly preset method. A friend suggested reorganizing the field names so that all my "special" fields are at the end of the list, and the fields I want the users to see are at the beginning of the list. But somehow that worries me.... what do you think? Thanks again! Skye

I want my users to be able to use the Sort function, because it allows them to sort ANY fields in ANY order, and it would take hundreds of scripts to do that. However, when they go into the Sort screen, they're going to see ALL the fields, including my calc fields, globals, etc. I'm afraid this will be confusing to the nonsophisticated, who will be a large percentage of my users. Has anyone else tackled this issue? Am I missing something obvious? Thanks! Skye

I assume you're talking about the dotted lines you see in Layout mode? They're you're right and bottom margins, as set in the "Layout Setup" screen.

I'm developing a solution with 8 related files. I'll set the initial passwords (one each for manager, user, and read-only) to be the same on all 8 files, so that opening the master file will automatically allow access to all the related. files. After purchasing the solution, the database manager (i.e., whomever has the high-level password) can change the passwords if they want. I hate to make that person go through ALL 8 RELATED FILES to change all the passwords! That will look amateurish at best, and could cause problems at worst if the person makes any mistakes while changing all those passwords, which is easy to do for someone not familiar with Filemaker etc. To search for alternatives, I read through all the this Forum's Security-topic messages containing the word "password". Looks like there's no other way ... except to buy that plugin called DialogMagic.... Have any of you used that plugin? does it work well? Thanks!! --Sky

P.S. Did any of you go to the FMP conference? Surely standards were discussed there!..?

Whoo-ee, Liveoak! I hadn't even THOUGHT about good ole MIL-STD-2167 in YEARS! That sure made me sit up in MY rocking chair! If you're talking about the document I remember, then I agree it's worth looking into as a potential source of standards for us. When I was doing govt. contract work, we used it and it was actually quite useful. (but of course, boring, like all govt. pubs) I just checked the Govt. Printing Office site, looked it up under "MIL-STD-2167", programming, standards, etc. couldn't find it. If anyone has other ideas on how to find it, or other standards sources, I'd like to know about them. FYI, I just got the CoreSolutions FMP Development Standards document (on the advice of Chris Kubica at Metro Technologies), and I'm very glad. It sparked lots of ideas for me and will definitely be added to my reference shelf. After dealing with the plethora of standards documents during the 80's, I've been amazed at the lack of such documents now -- I thought I MUST have been overlooking something patently obvious to everyone else. I'm glad I found this topic! Skye

Whoo-ee, Liveoak! I hadn't even THOUGHT about good ole MIL-STD-2167 in YEARS! That sure made me sit up in MY rocking chair! If you're talking about the document I remember, then I agree it's worth looking into as a potential source of standards for us. When I was doing govt. contract work, we used it and it was actually quite useful. (but of course, boring, like all govt. pubs) I just checked the Govt. Printing Office site, looked it up under "MIL-STD-2167", programming, standards, etc. couldn't find it. If anyone has other ideas on how to find it, or other standards sources, I'd like to know about them. FYI, I just got the CoreSolutions FMP Development Standards document (on the advice of Chris Kubica at Metro Technologies), and I'm very glad. It sparked lots of ideas for me and will definitely be added to my reference shelf. After dealing with the plethora of standards documents during the 80's, I've been amazed at the lack of such documents now -- I thought I MUST have been overlooking something patently obvious to everyone else. I'm glad I found this topic! Skye

Thank goodness for your reply and for this information. I, too, had been staring at my code and manuals for ages trying to figure this out. Just as an FYI to anyone else who might use this info: I thought I HAD included the recid - but I was getting my record ID from a TOKEN: <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-recid" VALUE="[FMP-currenttoken:1]"> - which did not work. When I changed my code back to <input type="hidden" name="-RecID" value="[FMP-CurrentRecID]"> everything then worked smoothly. --Skye

Thank goodness for your reply and for this information. I, too, had been staring at my code and manuals for ages trying to figure this out. Just as an FYI to anyone else who might use this info: I thought I HAD included the recid - but I was getting my record ID from a TOKEN: <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="-recid" VALUE="[FMP-currenttoken:1]"> - which did not work. When I changed my code back to <input type="hidden" name="-RecID" value="[FMP-CurrentRecID]"> everything then worked smoothly. --Skye

Thanks very much for responding! I had indeed read the post in which Jeff Spall responded to your questions. In fact, that's how I got the idea to try the code below, set up as a button within a portal, to allow the user to link to the format file which will display and allow editing of the related record. <A HREF=FMPro? -db=NRT%20Contacts.fp5& -format=manager_contacts.htm& -error=manager_error.htm& -lay=All%20fields& -op=eq& ContactsRecID=[FMP-field: NRT Contacts::ContactsRecID]> <FONT SIZE="+2" COLOR="#CC0000"> <B><IMG SRC="images/update_this_recd.gif" ALT="Button: Go to update this record" WIDTH=165 HEIGHT=21 X-CLARIS-USEIMAGEWIDTH X-CLARIS-USEIMAGEHEIGHT BORDER=0 ALIGN=bottom></B> </FONT> (NRT Contacts.fp5 is the related file; the master file and NRT Contacts have a one-to-many relationship. ContactsRecID is NRT Contacts.fp5's unique "key" field.) When I view my format file's source code via a browser, here's what it looks like: <CENTER><A HREF=FMPro? -db=NRT%20Contacts.fp5& -format=manager_contacts.htm& -error=manager_error.htm& -lay=All%20fields& -op=eq& ContactsRecID=1043> <FONT SIZE="+2" COLOR="#CC0000"> <B><IMG SRC="images/update_this_recd.gif" ALT="Button: Go to update this record" WIDTH=165 HEIGHT=21 X-CLARIS-USEIMAGEWIDTH X-CLARIS-USEIMAGEHEIGHT BORDER=0 ALIGN=bottom></B> </FONT></CENTER> This looks like exactly what I wanted, but when I try to use it, I get Error 4 (Command is unknown). I'm obviously doing something wrong. I would certainly appreciate your feedback on this! I would also love to be able to see sites where things like this are up and working. I learn a lot from examples. Can anyone point me to a site where someone successfully jumps from a format file which looks at a portal to another format file which allows editing of related records? Thanks! [ July 19, 2001: Message edited by: Skye Ridley ]

Vaughan (or anyone else who can advise me): I hope you see this post (it's a year later than the last one). I like Vaughan's method of linking from a portal in one format file to another format file to work with related records. It's a good idea which would be much simpler to understand (for maintenance folks later down the line) and/or modify than other methods I've heard of. After I read his post, I tried to implement something similar. But I can't figure out how to go to the correct related record in the second format file. How do you pass the related record's record ID or other key to the second format file? Thanks! Skye

Yes, I realize that I could do it. But y' know what? I don't want to get into that; I'm so swamped with other work, which I know more about. (The people I know who set up host systems all end up fielding calls & restarting things etc.; sounds like a big pain in the neck!)

oops; I posted a reply twice; sorry [ July 09, 2001: Message edited by: Skye Ridley ]

I've been looking for a less-expensive host, too. I have a test version of a little database I've developed which I want to make available to my client to play with via the web. I can't host my own databases, so I looked into renting server space. But my "database" is made up of 5 related FMP files and a number of html files, and even tho the whole thing uses less than 20MB, and even tho it would have less than 10 users [hits] per 24 hours, I would still be charged $200 per month because I have 5 FMP files. I understand why companies like Points in Space must charge what they do, and I think theirs is a fair price. I just can't afford it. Anybody have suggestions? Thanks! --Skye

I need to do the same thing - display graphics from a related file, via a portal. Did you ever get any answers? Skye