Multiple Select in List View

[ernst]

Edit -> Latest version is MultipleSelect v2, somewhere down this thread.

This is a simplified example of how to implement multiple selection of records in Filemaker's List view and perform an operation on such selections.

One of the advantage of this method is that it's completely 'network happy' as far as the selecting goes.

When performing an operation on the selected records in a shared database there is of course a chance that a record is being modified by another user, in which case an error is reported. Error handling could be more elaborate then in this example.

One slight disadvantage is that the maximum selection is limited. In this example to about 6400 records. (64000 divided by amount of 'ID'digits+1)

The same idea of multiselecting can also be implemented in portals.

Regards to all,

Ernst

[Lee Smith]

There seems to be something missing. Or is just me.

[Robert Schaub]

Nope Lee Nothing wrong with you.

[cjaeger]

looks (or doesnt, since the attachment is missing) like a copy all records (ID fields) in a global text field, then go to related record.

[ernst]

Oops, user error?

Second try....

Ernst

MultiSelect.fp5.zip

[Robert Schaub]

Way Cool Ernst, Worth waiting for.

[ernst]

I just checked the error capturing when performing an operation on the selected set on our network and some more work needs to be done on that.

Update- did some tweaking and things look promising. Now adding an error message that describes exactly which records were NOT updated because of being editted by another user.

Will try to post the results tomorrow.

Regards,

Ernst.

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Cool file Ernst.

Just wanted to mention that Christian guess was wrong. This is another method

Be curious!

Thanks again for sharing.

[ernst]

Hi, thanks for the positive reactions, and here's the next version...

Added:

- Select All & None function (using the method that Christian suspected!)

- Error checking on the maximum amount of selected records, which is actually 6399 (in stead of 6400)

- Improved multi-user/network behaviour when an operation is performed and one or more of the the selected records are being editted by an other user.

Could not get the multi-user error logging as neat as I wanted without sacrificing speed, so this version just reports that an error occurred updating one or more records and updates the rest of the selection.

The problem is that the operation on the selection gets performed on a seperate layout, looping down through a portal. If a portal record is being editted by another user, filemaker will just not perform the 'goto portal' scriptstep, so one can't read ID of the offending record.

I tried another approach that does not work with a portal and therefor makes accurate error-logging possible, but found that method 4 (!) times slower than the portal looping method.

So I suppose the choice of which method to use depends on whether the operation to be performed is 'critical' or not.

The reason for ranting and raving so much about this all is that I found that the users of my databases really love being able to do multiple-select in Filemaker, but that perfoming operations can cause true Havoc when the error capturing and -logging is not really foolproof...

Anyway, if people are interested in the 'safe but slow' method, and maybe also when they are not, I will post a worked out example with a true error log when I've had the chance to test it out on the network.

Last remark: the file uses a 'custom dialog' and therefor need FIlemaker 6 or higher.

Regards to all,

Ernst

MultiSelect v2.fp5.zip