K1200

Thanks for your reply. It led me to retrace my script steps for the Nth time. As I mentioned, I was going to object (portal, by name, and then field) and then setting a parameter with the current ID. As something to try, I inserted a Go to Portal Row[first] ... and voila!, it fetched the current first ID. Apparently, going to object doesn't home in on any current content. I never realized that. Onward!

I use a filtered portal to display a subset of content from a table. Everything works fine and when I click on a portal entry, I have no problem fetching the corresponding table entry ID and then displaying related content from the specific entry. All that is good. The problem is that I have a script that needs to get the ID for the first entry in the current results. I've tried different ways, but none will return that first ID ... even though I "go to object" ... first the portal name and then the field name. Usually the ID that's returned is the first for the table, as if the portal filter is being ignored. I certainly don't want to build in a duplicate Find operation when the correct entry is right there on the screen! How can my script get the entry? Thanks in advance for any assistance.

I use the Insert Picture in a script to place the contents of an image file into a container. Under FMP14 I'm seeing a very brief message whenever the step executes. The message title is either "Insert File" or "Inserting". I have seen both. But the messages are so brief—just a flash—that I can't determine if there is more message content. I don't recall seeing them in earlier versions and there is no message option listed for the script step. Are these considered "standard FileMaker messages"? ... or could they be coming from the operating system? If they're FileMaker messages, can they be disabled? I'm running on Windows 7 Pro. Thanks in advance for any help.

@LaRetta: Thanks. That does work. But in Windows on my PC, I've found that a simple GetAsText also returns the file's name, just like GetcontainerAttribute. I haven't tested all file types, but it seems to work for PNGs. Thanks for the other responses, also.

Thanks for the response ... but I had looked for some definitive image attribute and couldn't spot one. Did I miss it? filename seems to only apply to inserted files and not to pasted images. But I'll try some additional searches.

I have an instance where a container field is occupied by an image of unknown type. It might have been inserted or pasted in ... or imported. It will be accepted for further processing only if it's a PNG. How can I easily determine that? When I look at the actual header bytes of the file (after exporting it), "PNG" is clearly visible. Yet I wasn't able to get those first 4 bytes with a Left ( text ; 4 ) directly from the container. Is there a way to do that? Thanks in advance for any help.

That IS on the agenda. But the first order of business was/is to get the application fully working in FMP14. It's come up all the way from FMP7, when you had to keep track of active tab panels with variables like $$Tab1, $$Tab2, etc. I'm sure you remember that. Many of those are being replaced with Popup Panels ... as time permits. All-in-all, I'm pleased with the way such a complex application is behaving under FMP14. It certainly wasn't that way on a previous attempt ... an abandoned upgrade to FMP12. In that instance, the GUI was badly mangled. Now, it largely works (theme=Classic) ... with pretty clear reasons when something doesn't. Thanks again for the suggestions.

@Fitch: you hit the nail on the head. Four more hours of diligent testing arrived at the actual solution. I won't bore anyone with all the details, but suffice it to say I had a TO related to a global field in a primary table ... and the relationship wasn't causing the displayed content to change when I changed the global. I thought the solution was to relate the TO to a different TO that was always "current" with the operating circumstance. What I've finally determined is that a Refresh Window[Flush Cache Join Results] is needed. Before that, I tried adding a cartesian join ... as suggested by this article: Article But the join didn't work (don't understand why). The Flush Cache does. So, I was looking for Y when I really needed X ... or is it the other way around? Thanks for all the suggestions.

@Fitch: if I follow that method, it's remapping references as the layout is pasted. But I'd be afraid to use it on my main layout that has 50 tab overlay panels and references probably 500 fields. It's also a recently-converted layout from the fp7 side of the fence. I'm skittish about introducing something that would take me weeks to ferret out. Plus, it doesn't appear to address the script references. None-the-less, it's good to know of and will come in handy on some of my simple applications. Thanks. @comment: thanks for the suggestion, but unless I'm not understanding, double clicking opens the relationship dialog, but doesn't let me delink the existing relationship. Is there some other feature?

Yes, the TO is an occurrence of a primary table ... but the relationship diagram has it linked to a table that's different from the one I need it linked to ... so the portal that displays it doesn't show the correct subset of records. I need to reestablish its relationship without disturbing all the scripts and layouts that reference it. Possible?

I've found a TO that is linked to the wrong primary table. I want to keep the TO—same name and fields—and link it to a TO of the the primary table ... not the primary table, itself. I can't determine a way to do that. I learned long ago that if I create a duplicate TO, it generates a "2" version ... and I have to change all the references in scripts and on layouts. Likewise, if I delete the original TO and generate a new one of the same name ... all the original references in scripts are lost. Is there another way? I tried adding a link to the correct TO, with the idea of then deleting the original link ... but it won't let me set two, even for a moment. Even after 7 years, this is one aspect of FileMaker I've never understood. (Please tell me I'm missing something!) Thanks in advance for any help.

That sounds like a solution ... except this is a kiosk-style application that would have to have a "Spelling Options" button somewhere on the screen to bring up the dialog ... which isn't a good solution for on-the-fly settings. So ... since I can't find any script step for toggling, I guess the alternate field table is it by default. Thanks for trying.

No ... only that they can toggle checking on/off for any field, according to what they're entering at the moment. Spellcheck can either be a great advantage or a great distraction. I just want to let THEM decide.

Thanks for your response. I should have been clear: I'm looking for a user feature for runtime use. I had thought of a "swap fields" approach, but hoped that wouldn't be the answer. In an application with well over 20 entry fields, it would be a bear to implement/manage ... although I suppose a single button that uses a table of alternate fields could be made to work: Check Which Field ... Swap To Alternate. But then there's the user's cursor position to worry about.

Over the years—and particularly for FM14—has anyone come up with a user-convenient way to toggle spellcheck on/off for a particular entry field? Spellcheck is so simplistic in Filemaker that it flags partial words that are being typed ... plus all urls ... and occasional supporting references like "libeay32.dll". Ideally, there would be a toggle button somewhere on the GUI. But how can you achieve that effect? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

That worked! Thank you for the quick response.

Would anyone happen to know how to set the background color of a popup? I understand that it might be defined as part of the theme. But the theme my project was assigned during its FM11 to FM14 upgrade is Classic ... and I've read that Classic can't—or shouldn't be—changed. A picture of what I'm after is shown below ... and thanks for any help on this.

I'd like to add a couple of clarifications: The cases I described are all related to FileMaker operation on PCs. I apologize for not making that clear ... although I do sense that this class of issues applies to both platforms. The cases I'm most concerned with involve users of distributed runtimes. They never seem to share what I would call "developer's perspective". We, for the most part, are skeptical that all these moving parts will work as designed. We tend to lock things down at every turn, never wanting to risk our most-recent work. The average user, however, expects everything to "just work" ... which, thankfully, is the case most of the time. So, I'd still like to hear of any failure modes that don't involve zaps to the hardware or batteries running down. IOW, are file failures occuring to a degree that merits them being "on the radar"? ... or are they so few and far between that they are inconsequential?

I want to add some comments to this discussion — and then see if anyone has experienced sleep-related file corruptions other than the one I describe here. First, any laptop should have its Power Options set so that it enters Sleep Mode when it is closed. I also set mine to enter Sleep Mode when the power button is pressed ... but that’s an individual preference (which doesn’t require FileMaker to always be closed before the button is pressed). As a result, the only problems I’ve ever encountered are when FileMaker is running when the laptop enters Sleep Mode AND the battery subsequently drains down (which loses the contents of RAM). In that instance, all “work in progress” changes are lost. Plus, Windows is not able to perform the necessary housekeeping on the open FileMaker file(s). Invariably, a file is reported as “not closed properly” upon the next restart. Part of any restart of a FileMaker application is verification of the primary file(s). Most of the time, the file verification completes with no problems found. But sometimes it doesn’t, in which case it usually reports that the file can’t be read at all. This is where I’ve always (except for one case in 5 years) been able to Recover the file and transfer the contents per the prescribed methods. One safeguard against battery drain down, of course, is to use the laptop’s hibernation feature, which writes the entire contents of volatile RAM to disk before powering down the processor — and which restores RAM upon power up. I have never experienced a file corruption associated with hibernation. So, does anyone’s experience differ? And by that, I’m talking about in mainstream PC operation, not when the PC is struck by static discharge or other such case.

I'm running FM11 Pro Advanced on Win 7 Pro. Through some quirk of my main Win 7 user account, I've lost the formatting (style and icons) for the FileMaker Help File (example attached).  Filemaker runs fine, but the appearance of the help file is degraded. It might have something to do with the ownership of some file(s). But I don't know of a way to identify the dependencies. In fact, I didn't know any of FMP's resources were located away from the Program Files directory.  Would anyone happen to know if there are "external" dependencies?  Thanks in advance.  Â

"Ouch" is right. Yes, it's a 4-year old topic ... but can anyone shed some light on it? I'm using Web Viewer more often and this has become a real problem. Users don't understand what's happening. In a few instances, buttons on a web page will take you to new content and use the FM window. In Google news, for example, clicking one of their categories on the left takes you to different content ... and you can navigate back from it. But clicking on a link to a story opens the PC's browser — too often with the message "this is not the default browser ...". Pretty rough for users. Can anyone explain why, technically, it operates this way? Is this only on PCs? Thanks for any insights.

That's the solution I was hoping to find. Simple. And versatile. I can certainly handle the punctuation aspects of it. In fact, there might be other uses that can benefit from special characters that I can find and exchange. Thanks very much!!! @MrVodka: "In the Portal Record create a calculated Search Field". A reasonable method, certainly with advantages ... but I can't add a field. Thanks, for the suggestion.

Thanks for your response. But unless I've misunderstood your suggestion, it displays all except "An Old Story Told Anew". Plus, it seems to only look at the first word of a phrase. Is that correct?

I have a simple situation and thought there was a simple portal filtering solution. I have a text field that contains phrases: "Newly Minted in New Hampshire" "New Ways to Run a Railroad" "An Old Story Told Anew" "Newfound Methods" When I set New as the filter keyword, it displays all four records. But what I'm trying to display are the first two. My portal filter is set as PatternCount (Table::Field ; Master::Keyword ) > 0 ... which I understand is looking to locate the text anywhere in the string. But this is where I thought there was a technique that could be applied. I've tried using apostrophes around the keyword and a equal sign prefix, but filtering just includes them in what it tries to match. It doesn't interpret them as filter rules. Any suggestions of what might work? (BTW, I'm operating with a separation model database and can't add anything to the table that holds the phrases.) Thanks in advance for any help.

Thanks for the alternate XMLstyle. I finally got back to my computer to test and got this (see attached) result: it goes too far the other way and removes all additional CRs.  What I need are all the CRs the user entered, but without "doubling" them in the TXT output. I think this means removing the Vertical Tab characters FileMaker is inserting, but I haven't been able to find an XML equivalent of Substitute.  Any ideas?  Â