FM Starting Point 5 questions

[yongzi]

Hello,

 

I have some questions that baffel me a little being a novice at Filemaker as well.

 

In FM Starting Point in the Startup script there is a reference made on Line 29 to populated field T17_STAFF::Filemaker_account with the logged in account name.  Thereafter there is find performed.

But when creating a new staff member by selecting New record you can populate first name last name and all other details.  Question:  How does FIlemaker_Account field get populated and with what info to link back to Get(Accountname) detail?

 

Calendar Question: When Logged in as a staff member and the g_user field is changed to another user followed by Add a task......is there a way to add a task based on the user (g_user) selected ......that the staff field in the task window is populated as a result of the g_user field selected.  Only reason I ask this relates back to the first question in that if a particular staff member opens up the FM Starting point I would hope to be able to add a task on that user. In the event it should be another person then can do a search and reassign.  Such that if logged in as ADMIN the can be all users and also make entry for other users, but if logged in as John Doe, then can only make calendar entries for himself and not other people..  Hope that makes sense.

 

Upgrade question: Let's say I change the description of text against certain field names.  That is not the field name itself but the text description to the left of the field name.  Example  Account Name....Account(fieldname) to Acc Name....Account(fieldname).

In future I am sure FM Starting Point will upgrade and become improved with newer versions of filemaker.  An upgrade in effect.  But the newer version will not have changed name descriptions.  Does this mean that the new version will need work and redo name description changes followed by imprt of data from old version where fieldnames remain the same?

Appreciate any feedback given and help. Sorry for so many questions as a Novice. Thank you in advance and great product.

 

Yongzi.

[Richard Carlton]

I think the fundamental issue is that we expect FileMaker developers/user to heavily modify their own copies of FMSP.  As a result migrating to new builds of FMSP is not really something that we expect people to do.  FileMaker in its current incarnation... does really support modular code...or transportable code.   Its pretty much the one giant weakness of the platform.

If there was an easy way to allow patching and upgrades we would use it.  Anything available now is grossly painful...and a not meaningful benefit for a FREE starter solution.

I guess in summary, we expect users/developers to take fresh copies of FMSP and customize them.   Once they do this, there is NOT method for patching those databases to the latest updated release.  Even if there were.... there would be a really good chance of breaking the customer's customizations...as we Patch our improves..."over the top" of the customers existing solution.  Potentially very dangerous.   

In terms of your specific question... my tech support team will surface and answer the question. This forum won't be the fastest method for getting answers.

The Tech Support team priority is to
(1) Answer the [email protected] email.  Email that go there...get loaded into a FileMaker system where they are triaged (responded to).
(2) Watch out for Bugs
(3) Finish creating FMSP 5 UK Release.

Once these get these things done... they will branch out to surface here...in a more reliable fashion.  :-)

- Richard Carlton

CEO & Senior Engineer & And Video Training guy who needs a vacation....
(Yes, last week...with the launch was rough.)

 

[yongzi]

Thanks Richard for your answer on upgrades.  It does make sense.

 

I have also submitted the entire question through the bugs layout of the solution.  I guess will wait for the Filemaker_Account issue and calendar issue questions both here or via e-mail response.

 

Thank you once more Richard.