newbie question

[John13]

I am new to Filemaker. Previously I worked on MS Access. I want to work on the design view of Filemaker rather than the runtime view. In MS Access, when the database is secured, we can disable the autoexec by pressing shift key and look at the database objects such as tables, forms, queries, reports etc.

Presently, I have a Filemaker application that starts from startup.fp5 and opening this file will display a series of buttons. One such button leads to a file called application.fp5. If I open application.fp5 directly, it will gives me an error like access denied. I believe what I'm seeing is the runtime view of filemaker. Two questions:

1) How do I disable the runtime view when I open startup.fp5?

2) How do I open application.fp5 directly without getting access denied?

I am using Filemaker Pro 6 on a Mac. Thks for any advise.

[rogermax]

Unless I misunderstand your post, the access denied would come from the password used not having permission to see that layout. Is it a gray screen with the words "access Denied" or is it a pop up message?

"Usually" runtimes don't use the extension of .fp5 A runtime is a bound solution using the FileMaker Developer Tool found in the FileMaker Developer version.

If you are indeed using a runtime and are opening it with rgular FMPro, then the developer that bound the solution may have permanantly disabled modification of the database.

[John13]

I am not entirely sure what caused the access denied but I do have to enter a password to access the file. The message comes in a grey box with the words "Access Denied..." and there is yellow box within this grey box that says function point. (not a pop up message).

I may have used the term runtime incorrectly (that's how it's described in MS Access when the database is secured from design view). Most menu items are disabled including Scripts/Scriptmaker, File/Define...

Is there any way for me to view the 'design' of the database such as fields, keys, relationships etc.? Many thks.

[John Caballero]

It sounds like you don't have the master password. A developer can deny access to various database features based on passwords. I'm guessing your password doesn't allow full access.

[kenneth2k1]

The rest of the world's definition of "run time" is different than runtimes of FM.

It just denotes a certain "time" that a specific procedure is happening in a program. There's like 'program time' 'test time'. During "run time" is just saying "when the program is being used as it normally would by a user."

[John13]

I just found the master password. The disabled menu items are now enabled. Also I have a Access Privileges menu item to set password and groups.

But I am still getting the 'Access Denied' message when I open the application.fp5 file directly. The start_up.fp5 file calls application.fp5 file, if I open start_up.fp5, I do not the access denied message. What's causing the access denied message?

[BobWeaver]

That file may have the "use default password" option set to try a lower level password. You can hold down the option key when you open the application.fp5 file. It will then ignore the default password and ask you to enter one, and you can put the master password in.

Also note that the master password doesn't necessarily have to be the same for all files.