Saving sorts and searches?

[russconte]

I'm somewhat new to FM Pro, using 3.0. My background is AppleWorks, and I know the database in AW can save sorts and searches to use later. As much as I look, I can not find anything like this in FM Pro.

Practical example, I have a FM database of employees, sometimes I want to sort it by employee name, sometimes by dates, and so forth. Is there a way to save the sort (or a search) so I don't have to recreate it every time? What I want to save are the sort or search criteria (sort by employee name then address, or search for all companies in Chicago, etc.), not the results. This is also how it works in Appleworks, if that gives any direction I'm going. Scripting is fine with me, I like ScriptMaker in FM Pro and I've had some modest success with it, but I can't nail down this solution.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Russ Conte

[ December 29, 2001: Message edited by: [email protected] ]

[Steven H. Blackwell]

quote:

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Originally posted by [email protected]:

I'm somewhat new to FM Pro, using 3.0. My background is AppleWorks, and I know the database in AW can save sorts and searches to use later. As much as I look, I can not find anything like this in FM Pro.

Practical example, I have a FM database of employees, sometimes I want to sort it by employee name, sometimes by dates, and so forth. Is there a way to save the sort (or a search) so I don't have to recreate it every time? Scripting is OK, I like ScriptMaker in FM Pro and I've had some modest success with it.

Thanks!

Russ Conte

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First, I'd recommend you upgrade to the current version, FileMaker Pro 5.5. There is a world of difference, and there are scores of new features.

Manually do your find and sort. THen immediately create a script with FInd and sort steps. THe script will remember the criteria.

HTH

Old Advance man

Copy_and_Paste_r2.zip

[spb]

Or, more generally, make a series of small scripts containing just the Perform Find command. For each, manually step through your find & memorize it. If you name them properly, you could have scripts called:

Find delinquent employees

Find employees over age 35

etc.

In your main script, call upon the find you need as a perform subscript step. Or, make buttons to activate these find subscripts to do the find outside of scripting.

It would be better to actually list the steps in the subscript, instead of memorizing, though. Like:

Enter Find Mode

Set Field [EmployeeID, ">1000"]

Add New Request

Set Field [EmployeeAge, "<35"]

Omit

Perform Find

This will find all employees aged 35 or greater with an Employee number greater than 1000. The big advantage to doing it this way, is that it is easy to modify. If you decide you now need employees with numbers greater than 1050, you can alter that single Set Field script step, instead of manually setting up and rememorizing the whole Find.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, you can't script specific Sort requests. You have to memorize & save a sort order. But the same principle holds. Make a one-step subscript for each sort order you need & call upon it in a larger script, or make a button that runs it.

Steve Brown