Preventing duplicate records

[mklar]

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I'm trying to figure out how to make Filemaker alert the user when they attempt to create a record that already exists. It's a db for a casting agency and they'll need to enter 10,000+ names, detailed info and scans of headshots and resumes, I'd love to be able to warn them that they are about to waist the next 10 minutes of their life before getting too deep into that next new record.

I'm a newbie, but I have enough sense to attribute unique serial ID numbers to every new record, so I guess the best way to warn the user is for FM to sense when a duplicate FullName (a calculated field, NameFirst & MiddleInitial & NameLast) is created. I'm feeling a join table here... but I'm coming up empty handed.

Any advice (or examples!) would be really appreciated.

Thanks.

[Vaughan]

There used to be a Tech Info article about "unique validation of a calculation field" but it's gone missing in the recent renovation... and all the article numbers have changed anyway (don't these people think before they bulldoze everything?).

It involved a self-join and a looked-up field.

[mklar]

Sometimes it's just knowing what to call what you're looking for. I found an answer on experts exchange to "unique validation of a calculation field."

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Databases/FileMaker/Q_21367778.html

Thanks.

[Lee Smith]

Hi Vaughan,

They really mucked it up.

I found the new search page, it is

http://filemaker.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/filemaker.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php

but the idiots have removed the ability to search by Tech Number, so you have to search with the Article title, or with Keywords. and I think this was the Article you were looking for and it's there if you paste the title in the search window.

Unique Validation of a Calculation Field During Data Entry

HTH

Lee

[Lee Smith]

- snip - ... I found an answer on experts exchange to "unique validation of a calculation field."

And, I guess I'll never know the answer that you have provided. As I see it, anyone who wants to see it, must either be a member, or become one. That's too much money for me to pay for one answer, especially when it is available elsewhere for FREE.

Lee

[comment]

I think in version 7 this can be achieved with less resources (attached).

uniqueCalc.fp7.zip

[Lee Smith]

Hi comment,

Nice tip file, and I'm sure when I start developing seriously in v7, I'll use it.

BTW, I was [color:"blue"] not trying to answer the question at hand, I was point vaughan to where the Tech Articles were now available at FMI, and how to locate the Article I thought that he might be referring to. Whether or not it was the right one, I was leaving up to vaughan.

Lee