Wim Decorte

Reconsider having a calc field that is based on a global variables. Or any kind of variable. It would recalculate for all visible records in the found set so: why?

What email client is installed on Windows 7? Whatever you have, you'll need to reinstall it because it did not 'announce' itself to Windows so windows thinks there simply is no default email client. And FM hands off to Windows to get the email sent through the default email application. If reinstalling your email client does not help then you'll need to reach out to the support for that application.

How to run an OS-level script depends on the UPS software. The screenshot above would point to something that is not sufficient. You don't want it to run a command before shutting down the OS because that is still a chain of events that you have no control over. The ideal situation is the ability to run an OS-level script that you can run when the UPS goes on battery power and long before it would even attempt to shut down the machine. If the UPS for instance can deliver 15 minutes of battery power you'd set it up so that it closes the FMS files after 5 minutes. Giving it ample time to disconnect ghost users (unless the users are also on UPS and so are all the network switches, all users will be ghost users to FMS, FMS will try to ping them but they won't respond so FMS will want to wait the usual 2 minutes). A Google search for 'filemaker server shutdown script' should turn up a few hits on posts I have done in the past with the beginnings of a good VBscript.

Best practice is to configure your UPS to run a system-level script to properly close your FMS files. Like with anything: if you rely on the OS to shut down the files, things may go wrong.

Yes, you have to uninstall to install the new version. But the very first order of business is to get rid of the classic theme. That is absolutely the #1 priority. That and make use of the Top Call Stats log, see if the server is busy at those sorting times and if so with what table and field.

Can you show a screenshot of your layout part setup?

"Premature Optimization is the root of all evil"... Code efficiency and modularity is important, but not as important as solving the problem at hand. It's a fine balance to strike.

In theory: yes. The question will come down to whether the JSON building and parsing functions are faster or slower than the regular text functions I guess.

Double-check the previous version of FMS. It could be older than 15. What the exact dialog? I haven't seen a sorting one come up but I have seen a few "find in progress..." dialogs even when the users are not doing anything. All in older upgraded solutions, never in brand new ones. In working with FMI support, the first step was to make sure that none of the user layouts used the Classic theme and that has significantly cut down this happening. How many users at peak? That mac mini is not powerful at all, not much in terms of processing power and certainly not in disk i/o. What do the FMS stats.log and topcallstats.log say? Those two helped us a lot in finding areas to make the design of the solution better. With many filtered portals it certainly seems like there is lots of room for that.

Have you tried an explicit "commit records" before the refresh? If you do, what errors are returned from it, and can you grab the Get(RecordOpenState), Get(RecordOpenCount) before and after?

I don't think you need two tables for the stops. One table would do. The 'timepoint' or 'stop' is just an attribute of a stop. That way you need only to make relationship to the one stop names table and read whether it is a stop or a timepoint.

Is your Windows 32-bit? Then you need the 32-bit version of the plugin. If you need to make the install routine safe for multiple scenarios, there is a Get() function in FM that will help you determine whether the OS is 32 or 64 bit and branch to install the correct version of the plugin.

The best way to install plugins is to use the "install plugin file" script step. Just create a new file for it, add the container field and a script to install it. That makes it really portable. http://www.filemaker.com/help/13/fmp/en/html/scripts_ref2.37.66.html#1076200 It also allows you to trap for errors. The script step will put the plugin where it belongs automatically. And the benefit is that you can use the same file to have it installed on FMS through server-side schedule, and in WebDirect. Once installed, a plugin is available in all files that you open with your copy of FMP. Doesn't mean that it will be available for anyone else unless you also install the plugin there. Many plugins have license-checking mechanism and activation mechanisms. Check the help section of the plugin vendor's web site. Also: since FM12 is really old by now; if you have just downloaded the plugin you may have a plugin that is not compatible with the old version of FM. Again, check the plugin vendor web site.

Can you try with another Mac? With more Windows machines? Could it be that your mac is actually pulling open a file NOT from where you think it is opening it from?

Bonjour is only useful if the client and server are on the same network. Are you getting any kind of message in the "open remote dialog"? What if you use the direct network path to the file (little gear icon at the bottom towards the lower left of the launch center dialog).