I recently converted from FM6 to 7. In my db I use SS numbers as a unique field and is validated to prevent duplicates from being enter twice... with a warning message if the validation fails.... pretty simple stuff. On FM6 the validation occurred almost immediately after entering in a SS number. The message would pop up as soon as you moved to another field if it was a duplicate. Now after converting to FM7, the validation occurs about 20 fields later when entering a dupe or when exiting to another record. Makes it pretty bad to enter all the information for 20 fields and then find out the record already exists.

Any one else seen this or is it something is just missed in setting up the fields? This is a shared file over a LAN, but the old one on FM6 was also and it was pretty much instant. Is this something different in the networking of FM7? Any help or ideas appreciated.

reno58

The validation in FM7 is occurring when the record is committed, where FM6 was checking as soon as you left the field.

I can't think up a way off-hand to get the old behavior back, but that's what's happening.

You might consider reporting this to FileMaker as a bug.

It appears that they don't consider this a bug, but a feature. Check out the TI article:

http://www.filemaker.com/ti/108775.html

Using the Example plug-in, you could run a script on field exit that commits the record.

Reed said:

It appears that they don't consider this a bug, but a feature. Check out the TI article:

...

The FM site is dead for me, so I can't look. Still, if enough people report it, perhaps this *feature* could be "unimplemented" in a v-rev.

Or if you don't want to commit the record, you could use the example plugin in an auto-enter calculation. You can then run a script that does whatever validation you want to do whenever a field is modified. If you don't have developer, an example file with this free plugin has been posted on:

http://www.databasepros.com

Thanks for the input guys! You folks are the best at responding and you really know your stuff.

Now let me ask a stupid question..... what is the procedure on adding a plugin. Have never done that in Filemaker.

Thanks again

The plugin file needs to be placed in the Filemaker/Extensions folder and then filemaker restarted. Then the functions of that plugin will appear in the functions area of the calculation dialog.