Find "unknown" calls?

[kennedy]

Does FMP provide any way to find all dangling script calls... calls to "unknown" scripts?

The same question for unknown fields? Etc.

Thanks.

[SteveB]

I think your best bet is to look at Waves in Motion Analyzer. It comes in 2 flavors: a 'Lite' version which was free, and a 'Pro' version which provides a lot of detail. Its main shortcoming is that any large complex solution will need to be run overnight.

Also look at Chaparral's Brushfire. It runs very rapidly, but I have found problems with it (which may be correct by now). However, if you're developing on Wintel, Brushfire only runs on Win 2000, NT and XP.

Both are a worthwhile investment if you do heavy development.

Forget the DDR unless you have a lifetime to devote to fixing FMI's crap.

It's a totally undocumented, poorly done 'enhancement'.

[CobaltSky]

Not to detract from Steve's advice and suggestions, but another approach - more of a 'fast fix' solution - is to run either a 'print-to-text' or 'print-to-pdf' for all script definitions, then run a text search on them for "<unknown>".

This won't identify buttons which are attached to missing scripts however - but the DDR does a passable job of that.

[SteveB]

It seems to me that Ray's suggestion is really not practical if you have hundreds of scripts, and it won't identify 'orphaned' scripts and unused fields. One Filemaker's real shortcomings is its lack of tools to enable a developer to keep his solution clean - no maintenance facility.

The few hundred dollars spent on each of these tools is a worthwhile investment if they catch stuff that's unused or broken.

[CobaltSky]

Agreed. My suggestion was strictly for the one-off 'quick fix' type of situation.

[LiveOak]

I've used Analyzer and and Brushfire both. The speed of Brushfire is really impressive. Analyzer can take all day for a large solution. I also like the html document output, a unique approach. The ability to search scripts is also very useful. I'm looking forward to the new features in Brushfire 2.0.

-bd

[kennedy]

Thanks for the pointers... seems to be the stuff I'm looking for.

I downloaded Analyzer Lite and dropped the plugin into the extensions directory... but it doesn't show up in Application Preferences.

Any ideas? (I am running FMP 5.5 on OS X 10.1.)

[CobaltSky]

If you are using the standard edition of FMP, the problem could be that Analyzer only works with the developer version (it requires the DDR capability).

[kennedy]

I have FMP and FMS, but not FMD... I am just developing for my own small company... can't justify the extra $500 yet. So, I guess that leaves me with the print-to-text method? I don't suppose there's any way to script that? Or to Print-to-Text-All?

Any suggestions for someone without FMD?

[SteveB]

I don't know that Ray is right about needing Developer on a MAC. I'm not a Mac person, but it was my understanding that Analyzer Pro ran on a Mac without Developer. On a PC, which came later in Analyzer' s development, the DDR was necessary, but Lite ran but couldn't look into scripts. I would not give up on it until you talk to Waves in Motion. It will make your life a LOT easier and is worth the investment.

[CobaltSky]

Might be worth following up as Steve suggests re the possibility of partial functionality with Analyser on Mac Standard edition.

However that aside, with the Print-to-text approach, you can select the "all scripts" option in the print dialog and get all the script from one file in a single hit.

It could eb scripted to run from all the files in a solution (by callung a number of identical external sub scripts distributed throughout the solution) but I guess it is only if you anticipate a need to run such a file frequently that it would be worth setting that up.

[kennedy]

I'm not a Mac person, but it was my understanding that Analyzer Pro ran on a Mac without Developer. On a PC, which came later in Analyzer' s development, the DDR was necessary, but Lite ran but couldn't look into scripts. I would not give up on it until you talk to Waves in Motion.

Waves in Motion responded that Analyzer Lite is no longer supported. In fact, its so long out of support, they seem to barely recall anything about it... including whether it even required a plugin. They recommended the full version of Analyzer, of course...

But that version DOES indeed require FM Developer. So, since I am using FMP and FMS 5.5, that means I need to either pay $500 for an OLD version of FMD, or pay thousands to upgrade FMP and FMS and FMD to 6.0, or pay $500 and use FMD 6.0 with FMP&S 5.5... and those are all in addition to the $289 for Analyzer.

Not sure I'm convinced I need it that much... I think I may get more spending that money on consulting support.

Does anyone rent FMD+Analyzer by the hour?

[SteveB]

Waves in Motion is full of crap. The Lite version was available within the last 12 months, but since it didn't analyze scripts it won't do you much good. You can purchase FM Developer v6 for $470 or less from various sites. There is no need to upgrade FM Server, and with Dev you'll have v6 of FM. I don't know whether FMI has any upgrade deals, but given their 'screw the developer' attitude, I kinda doubt it.

If you're writing for yourself, if it breaks, you can easily fix it. If you're writing for others, you may eventually want to invest in either tool...they will eventually pay for themselves in time saved.

[BobWeaver]

I wrote a filemaker documentor a while back and was planning to post it in the samples forum whenever I got around to writing some instructions for it. It documents and cross references fields, layouts and scripts (with a bit of manual intervention). I guess maybe I'll post it anyway. It does have a few built in instructions. Check back tomorrow.

[BobWeaver]

You could check this out:

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=files&Number=47772&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1

[kennedy]

Not to detract from Steve's advice and suggestions, but another approach - more of a 'fast fix' solution - is to run either a 'print-to-text' or 'print-to-pdf' for all script definitions, then run a text search on them for "<unknown>".

I don't seem to have a print-to-text option. I do have PDF and Postscript options. But neither outputs anything containing the script in searchable form.

Any ideas on how I'd get it to print to text?

(I am running FMP 5.5 on OS X 10.1.5.)

Thanks.

[CobaltSky]

For print to text you'd need to source one of the shareware drivers that are around. For instance, on MacOS I use a copy of Print2Pict with a 'Print to Text' extension that runs in classic mode.

However you can do just as well with a pdf. Acrobat will search text, and a pdf printed from the Script Definitions printing option produces searchable text on all platforms I've tried it on (except if you select a driver option to rasterize all the output).

Attached is an example pdf print of a script which I ran just a moment ago. You should be able to get similar output - but of course, you'd select the option to print all the scripts at once (per file) rather than doing them one at a time as I did for the attached file.

Script.pdf.hqx