Paradigm

Well that's not it. This database has been up and running for them for several months now and most of the time (I think all of the time) is working just fine. But every once in a while, usually one particular user but not always has a problem logging in. There will be maybe three login attempts in a row and then I get a couple of frantic phone calls, login myself no problem and then login to the server and I see the authentication errors, Outside of 'people need to be careful when logging in to type their credentials correctly' I can't figure out what else could be the problem. I think I recall hearing once upon a time that if FM Server is conducting a backup while a user is logging in that will reject the user and log that error but I not even sure of that since my recollection of it is so vague. I'm also thinking hey maybe it's a bad/loose ethernet cable connection? I'm going it next week to take a look but I just trying to collect all the information I can about what it could possibly be before I throw any blame on the employees using the system. By the way, by "EA is in use" did you mean "External Authentication is in use" or something else?

My question is is there anything other than a bad login attempt (i.e. mistyped Username and/or Password) that can trigger a “authentication failed on database” error in a FM 13 Server log? I have a client who every once in a while seems to have login problems where users on the system (A Windows Server 12 LAN) can’t log on and typing too fast or sloppy is the only thing I can think of that could be causing them that problem. Is there anything else I should consider or look for?

Well, its not just Container Fields that have this Drag & Drop problem the problem is intrinsic to Drag & Drop data entry period. Okay I created a small sample file that illustrates the Drag & Drop problem I'm having. In this example I have a marketing research file name Companies.fmp12. You enter the name of the company you want to research and click on the 'Google Company Name' button and it opens up a search page in Google for that 'Company Name'. Companies.fmp12.zip You would then open in the browser the pages you're interesting in attaching to the record and then Drag and Drop the URL form the address bar into the URL field (the first field with a bold red border). Each portal row URL record has a field called 'URLs_DisplayOrder' which has been set to Auto-enter the Calculation: Get ( ActivePortalRowNumber ). While the Auto-enter Calculation works fine when you type text into a field or paste text in when you use Drag and Drop into a field it returns a value of '0' so I attached a Script Trigger to those fields bordered in red to run on 'OnObjectValidate' to set the value of the 'URLs_DisplayOrder' field to the portal row number. If you're running Filemaker Advanced and run the file with the Debugger on you can see that when you Drag & Drop the URL into the field the script is never triggered but it works fine when you just copy and paste the text. Drag & Drop doesn't let the portal record set the 'URLs_DisplayOrder' naturally and while it does trigger the script the script doesn't behave like it should and set the 'URLs_DisplayOrder' field correctly. I added a Container field with the same trigger to illustrate how the same problem with Drag & Drop occurs with it too. Can anyone explain what's going on here?

Dragging and Dropping into container fields works fine. That's no problem. BUT, if you attach a Script Trigger to that container field is wont run (it isn't triggered) when you drag and drop your file into that container field. It does however work (trigger the script) if you use the Insert File command instead of drag and drop to put file in the container. That's what perplexes me.

Yes I did try other Triggers (not all them because some of them made no sense for what I was trying to do). Since loading the container field creates a new record I also tried attaching the trigger to a calculated field that calculates when that happens and that didn't work either.


I put a Triggered Script on a Container Field (in a portal row record) to run when it Validates (OnObjectValidate) and while it runs fine if I use the Insert File command to put content in the container if I just Drag and Drop the Triggered Script never runs. In other words am I correct in saying Drag and Droping content into a container field wont Trigger a script to run? 

Any suggestions for a work around?

Wow that is great Bruce and it exactly what I was hoping to do. Having looked at what you did now what I am going to do is start from scratch tomorrow and try to build that from the ground up so that I get the education. That's a great help, thanks.

That right and I actually knew that (doh!) but wasn't really thinking intelligently about that when I wrote my post. Thanks for pointing that out. Again that's what I was thinking but how do you identify a Tab in a FileMaker calculation? What's the symbol for a Tab? That is good to know too but in this case the solution has to work for both the Mac and Windows platforms.

If I drag and copy let say 7 rows 6 columns of data from an Excel or Numbers spreadsheet I essentially have an array. How would I go about creating a script that takes that data and then puts it into 7 different records with 6 fields. I just read where: But I would like to do this without creating that text file. I'm thinking I would paste the text into a variable and then parse each line but how do you identify the delimiter in the array? What is the delimiters in an array when you copy data from an Excel or Numbers spreadsheet onto the clipboard? It's a Tab right?

Yup, that did it. And I knew that too. Geesh! Sometimes it just takes a kick in the ,...well you know, to get ya thinking right. Thanks. That was really driving me nuts.

Okay here's my problem and maybe its something I just misunderstood regarding sliding and layout objects. In an estimating program I've created I have a print out that displays estimate line items sorted by the parent Estimate Group which is the Sub Summary Part of the Layout. In my program you can also display a specification or detailed description of the line either on the Estimate Group level or the Estimate Line Item level or both and what my problem is when there is no specification text in the Specification field on the Estimate Group (sub-summary) level the specification field shrinks appropriately but the Sub-Summary section itself doesn't. While I know you can't slide or shrink headers, footers, title headers, and title footers (Headers, footers, title headers, and title footers never shrink or slide up.) I thought you could shrink or slide up sub-summary parts. Was I wrong in thinking that or is there a way to shrink the part? Here are some links to screenshots of what I'm working on if that helps. Layout Mode View Preview Mode View

If it possible I need to come up with a calculation that when a new record is created in Table 1 it counts the number of occurrences of a particular value in a field in another Table 2. In other words when a new record is created in Table 1 I get a calculated value that counts the number of times the value "Active" appears in a particular field in Table 2. How do I go about doing that? I know I can get this count by drawing a relationship between the two tables and counting the records that way but I wondering if there is a way to write a calculation that counts occurrences without the relationship. Maybe a custom function?

I figured it out,... I think,... or at least so far it's working. I realized the FilterValues( DatabaseNames: text) function was what was screwing me up so I rewrote it like this: [color:blue]Case ( IsEmpty ( FilterValues( DatabaseNames;"Interface_1") ≠ 1) ; Field & zippScript_PerformScript( "Interface_1" ; "The Script" ; ""); IsEmpty ( FilterValues( DatabaseNames;"Interface_2") ) ≠ 1; Field & zippScript_PerformScript( "Interface_2" ; "The Script" ; ""); "It didn't work") Anyone see any problems I might not be aware of or see yet?

Here's what I am trying to do. Working with the separation model I have two different files ("Interface_1" and "Interface_2") that both work with another file "Data". In both Interface files I have the same Field that I need to have trigger a script when the value in it is changed and I'm doing that with the help of the zippScript plugin. Typically (written in the Data file) I have the change in the Field triggered by an Auto Entered Calculation that replaces the existing value written like: [color:blue]Field & zippScript_PerformScript( "Interface_1" ; "The Script" ; "") ...and that works just fine,... for the Interface_1 file. But it ignores the Interface_2 file needing the same functionality. But since either Interface file or even both of them could be open at the same time how do I write the calculation so that it triggers the script in the active interface file where the change was made. I thought I could do this with the Case function written like this: [color:blue]Case ( FilterValues( DatabaseNames;"Interface_1") = "Interface_1"; Field & zippScript_PerformScript( "Interface_1" ; "The Script" ; ""); FilterValues( DatabaseNames;"Interface_2") = "Interface_2"; Field & zippScript_PerformScript( "Interface_2" ; "The Script" ; ""); "It didn't work") ...and I just get the default answer "It didn't work" which tells me I am not detecting the open database files with my FilterValues( DatabaseNames: text) function.

Yes, ... a self-join relationship. I think that should work. The records are sorted by another field in addition to the one whose value I want to inherit but that sort is the secondary one. I'll give this a whirl. Thanks.