Wishlist

[Triodes]

Hi,

Nice forum catagory, let's hope FM is listening.

My wishlist, things I am used to in other programs and would LOVE to see implemented in FM...

- initiate script conditionally on field value [without manually starting scripts]

- initiate script on time and/or date [dito]

- initiate script on field value change [dito]

- initiate script on field value (on true, while true every x seconds,

on false, while false every x seconds) [dito]

- conditionally make items visible/invisible [dito]

- conditionally change item/text color [dito]

- faster script handling (I can wish, can't I ?)

- copy/paste of script steps to other scripts/databases

- password management module for (editing/synchronising) multiple databases

Jim

[CobaltSky]

Hi Jim,

If you want to be sure that your wishlist gets noticed by the folks at FMI, you might like to also submit it at:

http://www.filemaker.com/company/product_feature_request.html

Meantime, it sounds like you might benefit from a browse around some of the third party developer sites that offer plug-ins for script triggering and script scheduling etc...

[Triodes]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for the tip. Just entered them (took some time). Let's hope they read it, I think the suggestions are very helpfull for the user interface.

Jim

[hayesk]

Late reply, but have you looked at the script plugin - you can use the auto-enter field to initiate a script upon value change in a field. Search for "hidden" at databasepros.com in the resources section.

It's called "Hidden Plugin" or something like that. Oh yeah, and it's free. It's actually included on the Developer CD.

[CobaltSky]

Quite the contrary, my advice would be to stay *well* away from the so called 'hidden' plug-in which hayesk is recommending.

When triggering scripts from data it is *vital* that the recordID be passed to the script and that the triggered script be constructed so as to ensure it acts on the appropriate record. Otherwise if the user leaves a field by navigating to a different record or changing mode etc etc, the script will be triggered from one record but may act on another - with a variety of unexpected and undesirable consequences. The example plug-in is intended as just that and provides no way to pass parameters to the script. If you implement it in a real world solution you will be courting disaster.

There are numerous third-party plug-ins which do not have this limitation. Some of them are shareware and some of them are free. As per my earlier post, a little browsing will unearth plenty of options which don't involve the risks associated with the 'hidden' example on the dev7 CD.

[hayesk]

Where are there free plugins that support passing a parameter? Not that I have anything against paying for one, but the commercial ones seem overkill with scheduling features, etc., and as a part time developer making shareware, paying developer licenses for each plug-in can become too costly.

Thinking about it a little more, a built-in feature that is based on the field format on the layout, rather than the field itself, would be much better in some cases, but not others. I can see the difficulty in designing this feature correctly.

[CobaltSky]

You might like to visit:

http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileS...=US&lang=en

or

http://www.softs4humans.com/FMPro_Plugins.html

for starters, but there are others.

[Fitch]

Ray, we're starting to use the Waves Events plugin with FileMaker 6... I worried about exiting the field by changing records. But how would you get the ID? With a token? Isn't it too late once you've gone to another record?

[CobaltSky]

Hi Tom,

If the token originates with a calc (ie the one which calls the external function) which is evaluated in the record you wish to target, it will 'belong' to that record (eg serial number, recordID etc).

If you have the script post the token to a global and write to the record via a relationship which matches the global to the field from which the token was derived, the script will always write to the record which triggered the plug-in, regardless of what record is currently active.