lock only part of a record for accounting purposes

[curious99]

Hi

I do not know if this can be done although I have found that very few things cannot be done with filemaker.

We sell vehicles as a business. Before we sell the vehicle, all kind of expenses go against the cost of the vehicle. Once it is sold, accounting wise, we do not want to play around with the cost of the vehicle and that is the reason I want to lock the file after it is sold.

Where it gets more difficult is that we do customer satisfaction follow ups and hence we have to access the file and log any concerns that the customer has in order to be able do solve his problem and also to find way to improve our processes (when similar problems occur over and over we see the trends develop through these logs)...so if my file is locked I cannot do these customer satisfaction logs. What do you suggest?

[mse]

Look at CobaltSky's Value Lock (FM6-only, but can be modified to work with FM5)

http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/demos/ValueLock.sit

[ernst]

Hi Luc,

I think that you should split this problem into two parts, the first being that a 'Car' record may not be altered once the car is sold, second that you want to make a customer satisfaction log.

First problem could be tackled by scripting the entry to the relevant fields. i.e. if the invoicefield has a value than produce a message when somebody clicks on the pricefield, otherwise go to the pricefield.

Second task could be accomplished by just a 'notes' field in the 'Cars field'. (those vehicles don't break down that often I may hope?)

If you really want to go all the way you could make a separate 'Customer Satisfaction' database that relates to the 'Cars' database via some sort of ID field. Each problem could then be logged in this Customer Satisfaction database through a portal in the Cars database.

If you think you need more help just let us know...

Regards,

Ernst.

[cjaeger]

Hi Luc,

stay with the 2 database setup outlined by Ernst. You could use record based security to prevent modification to the car database without complicated calcs (setting record access to read only when sold="sold").

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Agreed with Christian and Ernst about the second file.

Just keep in mind that any script would by-pass the validate by calculation setting, as well as any lookup.

So define your script to check the validation and invalidate lookup based on record lockers.

[curious99]

thanks for all your input!

This file is quite large, no multimedia and it is almost a gig...I already have about 20 other files related to this one including a customer preoccupation one that is initiated through this large file I call Invent(short for inventory)...so I do not feel I could or should modify it as the users on my network are all used to the way it is already set up.

That is why I would appreciate very much being able to lock only specific fields within it after the sale is completed...

I went to the site of valulock from Nightwing but it appears only to lock when there is a value list...

Do you ever think filemaker will incorporate it in it's design?

You hinted at a few other options which I do not fully understand.

Thanks again for all your input. If you feel like giving me more insight into the ideas, I would appreciate it.

:-)

Luc

[mse]

That is why I would appreciate very much being able to lock only specific fields within it after the sale is completed...

I went to the site of valulock from Nightwing but it appears only to lock when there is a value list...

I use it for a very similar admin-reversible three-stage project status validation/lock purpose.

[ernst]

>>That is why I would appreciate very much being able to lock only specific >>fields within it after the sale is completed...

This is easy....

Turn off 'Allow entry into field' in the 'Field Format' dialog for those specific fields

Make a script for each of them that does something like: if car is not sold then goto specific field.

select each field in layoutmode and attach the corresponding script via the 'Format -> Button...' menu.

If you've come this far with your database (20 files, 1 gig of data) the I cannot imagine that the above will be a problem. Or maybe I'm missing something in your question... In which case, please let me know!

Regards,

Ernst

[curious99]

thanks once more...I'll try it out and let you know...I built this database over the last 15 years while managing the business and I do my best at both ...I do not know all the tricks of filemaker(probably never will) but I am always glad when I learn new ways of improving my databases. For those reasons, I really appreciate the time you spend helping me. Have a great day!

:-)

Luc