History table

[FMBeachBum]

Hi all,

I'm a noob here and am hoping someone can help me out. I have been searching the forum hoping to find out how to create a history table for an equipment inventory database but have not found what I need. The project consists of 3 tables: EquipmentInventory, EquipmentHistory and Locations (lookup). What I would like to do is insert a record into the history table whenever someone changes the location (via the dropdown). Anyone know how to do this? TIA for any advice you may have.

[Fitch]

One way or the other you'll have to script this. A simple method would be a "Change Location" button, that takes you to another layout and writes history.

You may also want to look into a plugin, either something like Troi Dialog, so clicking the field brings up a dialog for changing location; or Troi Activator, so that exiting the field triggers a script.

Another method I've seen for keeping a history is a "shadow" file, where you click a button to go into "Edit" mode. What happens behind the scenes is that the original record is imported into the shadow file. Now you can make all the changes you want in the main file, and you can revert to any version of the record at any time, you've got them all in the shadow file.

[dbruggmann]

In the sample forum you can find some pretty good examples for general

[FMBeachBum]

Thanks for the response Tom. I knew it had to be done in a script but I was hoping to trigger the event off a change in the dropdown, guess not. I will take a look at the Troi plug-in and do some research on shadow files. In the meantime, how is Portland? I was working for Best Consulting out of the Portland office before we moved to SW Florida 5 years ago. I miss the place sometimes, don't get back to visit very often.

[FMBeachBum]

Thanks for the response Detlev. Yes, I have look at several examples but they were not quite what I wanted. I was hoping to drive the update from an event (a location change) but I guess FileMaker doesn't support that. I know, I'm picky ;-P