So many unused fields, relationships, scripts ...

[booboo]

Hello everyone. It took a while. (Like 2 years) but I finally found you all. And what a great forum! A wealth of information and resources.

So we've only just met and already I'm on the scrounge . . .

I'm probably the messiest FM developer in the world. I try a script. I try it another way. I think of something different, and try it another way. Now I have 5 versions. Then I come at it from a different angle, try to use some Status function I haven't used before. Try that 5 ways. In half a dozen different relationships. And that's just breakfast.

OK. You may say this reflects a lack of forward planning. Maybe true. All right, it is true. However, along the way I have managed to stumble across things I never would have been able to actually work out in my somewhat over-taxed brain. Maybe.

Cut to the chase.

This database I've been working on, off an on, on and off, for a couple of years, is just about ready to go. Problem is I have 240 fields, 30 relationships, and close to 200 scripts in just one of the files. I'd estimate only a third is actually being used. And it's a total nightmare trying to work out which.

Also some fields are just begging to be more eloquently renamed, but may be being referenced by some Status function, or used by some Script . . . and of course FM doesn't inform you of that.

Is there any simple easy way to tell which fields/scripts/relationships are unused (including by related files)?? Does the Developer version do this?

In Cubase you can 'purge unused audio' which is a great function . . . and almost entirely irrelevant.

Thanks!

[JerrySalem]

Filemaker Developer has a tool that will identify unused scripts, fields, layouts and relationships. IF this is too pricey, there are several freeware options that will do a report and identify how these items are being used in your solution. (design documenter is one, you can find them on this board)

I would like to gently suggest you take a look at the development standards area of this board and read (no, memorize) the very nice set of FM standards put out by Core solutions it will make you much more productive.

Jerry

[SteveB]

You can rename fields and relationships without a problem...FM keeps an internal table so you can safely change them. As far as having unused fields, scripts, etc., Developer can produce the DDR, a data base design report (virtually useless by itself). There are two plugins that you could consider (I believe both require that you have Developer):

Analyzer Pro from Waves in Motion, and Brushfire from Chaparral Software. Both have their pluses and minuses. Neither is a substitute for the other. Analayzer is very, very slow (hours on a fairly fast machine).

HOWEVER, FM is about to release a new version that will be a major change and will cause a file format change so that the current versions of these tools will not work with Version 7.

Steve