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It is hosted, we have a different staff member that deals with the Server-side of things (I wish they'd let me). The file has closed unexpectedly a few times. Usually, this is involved in the printing. This doesn't make me happy at all, but thanks for the help. What steps can I take to clean things up?

Hey there, I'm running FileMaker Pro 8.0v1. I've got a database of products that I've been maintaining for some time now. Each product is linked from an Item Master (IM) layout to ingredients, qualities, display layouts, etc. by a primary key. Lately, with one item, the IM data has stopped appearing. When I search the IM layout for the primary key (or any other piece of data related to this item), the fields displayed on one record appear empty and cannot be edited. I can't even see data in the field that I searched to find the record. Looking at a field linked to this record from any other layout, it appears empty and cannot be edited. I've created a new record for this item and deleted what I could, but the IM record which seems to contain no information cannot be deleted. When I search for it and delete it, the found count goes to 0, but the total remains the same and the record remains. I'm sure I'm not the first to encounter this, but I cannot find a similar post. Can anybody help me either understand the problem or just get rid of the remaining record? Thank you very much, Michael

That sounds like the exact problem here. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

It seems the problem is that FileMaker no longer stores/cares about the page size each user picks after they hit the OK button in the Page Setup dialogue. I'm currently in preview mode, trying to change it and every page size I choose reverts to 8.5 x 11. Any help is still much appreciated.

No such luck, I guess it's time to re-build. Thanks for the idea though.

Hello, I have a database of tracked product history that I'm trying to make printable. For some reason, the printing of this specific file is not working properly. I'm printing on a Xerox printer with multiple paper sizes and such and despite the fact that I've done everything I can think of to ensure that I'm telling FileMaker to print on 8.55"x11" (checking that print setup contains the proper page size both before and after printing), it prints on a different page size, 11"x16", which I don't enjoy wasting. I was wondering if anybody has encountered this type of problem/knows what to do about it. As a note, this is a file that I've inherited from a previous administrator, so I'm unsure of which version of FileMaker it was made with (I don't even know if that's a part of the problem). I have three other working, printing databases that I've created in v8. If it would be remedied simply by recreating the file entirely in 8, I can, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Alright, I have a little better understanding of subsummaries, but I don't quite understand how to implement the printing from the related table will condense the number of pages I use. I'm working on a sample of this database so you can see my problem

I'm sorry to say that Sub-Summaries still baffle me. My FM freezes whenever I search the help So that's just a different problem. Would I put a subsummary after every category, and if so what do I sort it by? I'm gonna start looking into them more, but if it's simple and explainable, feel free to give me a hand. Thanks, Michael

Hi all, My problem now is as follows: I have a database up and running that is filled with products (so I can't post it due to privacy issues). My company needs to print out the Specifications of these products in order to send to customers. I just can't make a layout that I feel comfortable actually presenting to customers due to the amount of white space I'm creating. Each product has 9 categories, brought in through portals. Each of these categories contains between 8-15 fields. I need to make a layout that prints properly if every single field is filled (worst-case scenario), but that also prints if various amounts are. Some products also do not contain certain categories. Right now, for printing, I've separated the layout into three different pages and scripted a print of all of them. This works, but if page one only contains 2 categories with 3 records, it looks embarassingly blank. I'd like to be able to create one layout which prints straight across page boundaries, but I don't want the start of a category to be on the bottom of one page and then the rest of it to be on the next. Is there any possible solution out there to make a decently printable document? Thank you very much, Michael

Just out of curiosity, how many layouts do you have?

If you ever create more than 44 (not positive on the number) layouts, the drop-down menu for them adds gets scrolling arrows to the top and bottom

Yes, sorry Ender, I forgot to give thanks for your help, your solution was most useful to me.

Ender, Yeah, I realize that it's pretty vague what I'm doing here (I try not to be so vague, but the entire loop is quite lengthy and my question's just referring to my looping method, I'm content with it's contents). This is just a general loop that I've been using to make changes to fields in all found records. It generally just contains Set Fields. As a programmer, I was just interested to see if there's a more effective way to do this. And thanks for the Get hint. I always look over how many things that function can handle. Thanks! Edit: And yes, the two layouts are related, by Item Number. Layout2 simply has many occurences of Item Number differentiated by multiple Lot Numbers.

Hey all you FileMaker...ers Is there a more efficient way to loop through found records than the following: Go to Layout [Layout1(Layout1)] Set Variable [$ItemNum;Value:Layout1::Item Number] Go to Layout [Layout2(Layout2)] Enter Find Mode [] Set Field [Layout2::Item Number;$ItemNum] Go To Record [Last] Set Variable [$LastLot = Layout2::Lot Number] Loop . . . Exit Loop If [$LastLot; Value:Layout2::Lot Number] End Loop Either that or is there a way for the script to find out how many records were found? Thanks a lot, M

I'm still pretty new to this, so I'd hope comment comes back with something better, but Fields: ExpireDate - a calculation field (of type date) that evaluates to StartDate+183 (avg length of six months) CurrentDate - a date field, insert the current date in there (just to start out) DiffDate - a calculation field (of type date) that evaluates to CurrentDate - ExpireDate make a script Insert Current Date [CurrentDate] Enter Find Mode[] Set Field [DifDate; >121 <183] Perform Find[] This should find all records with a CurrentDate - ExpireDate value of between 122 and 183 days. (4-6 months) I do stress however that this isn't the most effective way, but it should give you a bump in the right direction, I hope. I imagine somebody will either correct my solution or offer a new one, as this doesn't really account for which day of the month it is. Good luck! Michael

Ender, Thank you for responding! Please bear with me, as this is my first time doing anything this complicated. I have just a few questions which I pray will get me back on my feet. What would this Product Revision Table hold as fields? I play on going the Item Number & Revision Number way and currently only have those two, which are linking directly to my Product (Data Entry). I hope I haven't gone wrong yet My understanding of the 'child records' is that they are the * per products. Are you suggesting that I add a Revision Number field to all of them? How would I self join each of these tables, Item Number to Revision Number? Thanks for bearing with me, I'm only inches away from getting the hang of this, Michael

Hello fellow FileMakers, Alright, I whipped up a primary key to link them all, as I suggested previously. My great problem now is that although the proper records are preserved, the new one created is empty. I have about 10 different tables, each of which need to be copied and assigned the new key. How do I go about doing this? Help at this point would be greatly appreciated, as I feel I am so close. I am posting my file. The way it should work is as follows: Data is entered into Data Entry From Data Entry, a Draft Spec is created Once the Draft Spec is good, the first revision of the Standard Spec and Certificate of Analysis are created Also, since the revision number is now incremented to one, a new record of data entry is created. My problem lies in the fact that the new record has a new primary key value and thus no longer links to the correct information. What scripting process can I use to copy all related information and give them new primary key values? Thank you greatly for any help, Michael Edit: For the sake of simplicity, guest has full access PMFv0.11.zip

Hello, I have a database made up of products. Each of these products has a unique ID number. Information on them also undergoes multiple revisions. I want to save these revisions. Right now all tables are related by the ID number alone, but I forsee that when a revision takes place, because of this it will change for all revisions with the same ID (which I don't want). Would the simplest way to keep everything sorted be to create a field that is common to all IDs with the same revision and use that as the relationship key? The thought in my head now is it would be a concatenation like IDNumber.RevisionNumber Sorry if the question sounds basic, I'm thinking aloud and looking for advice. Thanks a lot, Michael

Thanks for your response! My solution turned out to be similar. Here it is, for reference sake. Set Variable [$ItemNum; entry layout::Item Number] Go To Layout [input layout (input layout1)] Loop Set Variable [$InputLooper; 1+$InputLooper] New Record/Request Set Field [input layout::Item Number; $ItemNum] Set Field [input layout::Measured Amount; Case ($InputLooper = 1; "First Amount"; $InputLooper = 2; "Second Amount"...) Exit Loop If [$InputLooper = 10] End Loop Go To Layout [entry layout (entry layout1)] Thank you, Michael

Hi there, I'm using a portal in my database which I wish to automatically populate with some data (roughly the same data is looked at for each record for which the portal exists). This data may be wanted to be deleted or changed by whoever is entering it however. I do have a value list containing everything I need to be in this portal. Would the proper way to go about doing this be make a script which, on creation of each record, populates the fields which the portal is drawing from with the auto-enter data? If so, how would this script work? Thanks a lot! Michael ps If you need to see my file to understand this better, let me know.

Haha. I knew it would be that simple. Thank you very much! ???

Hey everybody Alright, you know you know this one! I know this question is notably silly, but how do I change the order in which my layouts appear on the dropdown list (the main one on the left)? I keep on making new layouts that are more important that I want to put up to the top, but I can't, for some silly reason figure out how. Thank you very much for helping me, Michael

Hello FileMakers! *big breath* ...Alright, I've got this database halfway there (sorry it's in such a mess), but I have two questions. Firstly, I feel I have far too many different layouts, but I don't know what I should do to trim them down. Most of the ones I feel are extra could, I suppose, be condensed into value lists, as all they do is power them, but something's kept me from doing that because I'm scared some behaviour will change. I think value lists are probably the way to go, but some assurance would be more than welcomed. Secondly, I realize it was already sort of started here (so is my understanding) http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/177813/ but that thread is so long it confuses me to read through it all. I can't follow the entire thing. I have a main data entry point that I want to power two (three in the future) other layouts. I can get it to automatically create records of them by tying variables through them (there's a portal on Data Entry, which is indexed to Draft Spec [through Item Number], which contains information in Blends which is entered in data entry, that's a breathful ). Now I know I should be doing/needing to do this. I just want the Draft Spec to automatically create itself when a new Item Number is created in Data Entry, and leave all things (Draft Spec, Blends, etc.) related to Data Entry. I think. Does that mean the only way to create new Specs is to script it? Thanks both for any feedback and for bearing with me, Michael PMFv0.9_Empty.zip

Sorry, didn't see your post there. I'll see what I can find out. If I missed a previous post, I'm extremely sorry. Michael

As to the specific calcs/scripts involved, I use a set field to change Locked to 0 in a script. Set Field [Locked; 0] And to evaluate it, under the custom priveleges, Edit for that table is set to limited... where the only calculation it does is Locked Which, unless I'm mistaken evaluates locked in a boolean context, where 0 would restrict prilveleges and non-zero would allow editing.