How do I hide a field on a layout?

[J__]

Hi,

I have a field, which I need to have on the layout, but don't want my user to see.

Is there a easy way to do this.

ideally it would be nice if it only was hidden when the user is working with the layout at 'runtime' - but in design time (where your editing the layout ) have it display.

what's the trick?

thanks,

sincerely,

J__

[Ender]

Why would you want a field to only show in layout mode (there's no data in layout mode)?

[johnrh]

Just make the field background the same color as the underlying background. Shrink the field to 1 x 1 px and make sure it is not in tab order and also that you do not allow data entry

[Søren Dyhr]

I like to be challenged on this one, your wish to have an invisible field on a layout, smells badly of the use of either scripted replaces or copy/paste ...that eventhough they've been in the package as long as I can remember, isn't the use of them justified any more. Scripted Replaces are not behaving wise when recordlocking in multiuser environment is the issue. Copy/Paste are even worse because the tampers with the users clipboard. Today is it posible to use the outerjoin relations to many of these dwindling task such as this:

http://previews.filemakermagazine.com/videos/536/AutoReduce2_preview.mov

Now it's only a tempting introduction, but the way you could do it, is to make a return delimited list as key for this type of relation ...and all records with foreing key matching this field are excluded from the found set the relation points at. The only snag to it is that something say a pilcrow needs to auto entered at record creation.

--sd

[J__]

thanks.

The reason why I need this is because I go to another view to look in some contact information - which has no relation to the first layout, so when I come back, i am not guaranteed to be on the same record I was. .. and I'm not.

So, i do a find, i insert text into that hidden field to locate the record and then copy my data i got from the contact table into it.

if I remove the field, it doesn't work anymore.

I'm sure there is a better way, but sometimes you have to just get it working - for the demo <grin>

thanks,

J__

[Søren Dyhr]

I would do something more healthy to the clipboard. Relate the two files in question with chartesian product relation and write from the other file to a global field via a Set Field[ ...then hide the contact table layout and finally get the non global updated with contacet info.

Since I just upgraded last week, am I still solving such matters with applescript when I think up a solution, but my hunch tells me that that script parameters could help you avoid the global....

--sd

[Søren Dyhr]

I've now toyed with the idea - and I came up with following upload!

twoUnrelat.zip

[J__]

Thanks. I have used a similar - not the same - but similar approach with scriptparameters to pass to scripts... i think they're great.

I agree with the Go to Related record idea, but my problem - and i may misunderstand someting here. Is that now I am linked to that record in the contacts and it may be that the contact moves or is removed from the database table at some point. Wouldn't there be a problem then viewing the record? So, I make a copy the way described above.

i'll have to look more at the X stuff. thanks for the idea and sample code, I appreciate it,

sincerely,

J__

[Søren Dyhr]

and i may misunderstand someting here. Is that now I am linked to that record in the contacts and it may be that the contact moves or is removed from the database table at some point.

No not quite since we made a copy of the chosen contact, we didn't make a link to make a related records value to be shown ...so when the record in the contacts file is removed ...deleted or altered the value we plucked isn't altered accordingly. A lookup would behave similar, but the way I designed the script could a seach be made in the contact file independetly. So I break the first normalform just as a straight forward copy/paste...

--sd