Hi, I am looking for a way to create a database to be used to track information for a trade show. The basic database is easy, but I really want a graphical interface for it.

Ideally, I would want a visual representation of the floor plan with small cubes that represent booths. Then I would like to be able to attach related information to these booths and be able to physically move them around. Maybe use color coding to quickly identify particular qualities. Or perhaps by rolling the mouse over a particular area of the box you get a pop-up with related data in it.

I can imagine this type of tool as useful in other things too, such as school scheduling. It would be cool to drag classes around and put them in different rooms, yet have all the related data that goes with each class associated with the visual representation of it (such as a box).

Is it possible to build something like this in FileMaker Pro? Does anyone have any ideas?

Edited May 8, 200718 yr by Guest

In my limited experience I've never seen this in action on a Filemaker solution. I'm interested in seeing what people have come up with.

A floor plan is not that difficult (see here for a start). Drag & drop is another matter.

If you decide to go web-based, or if you have FM8.5, you could make use of Flash. I have seen demos where Flash was used to assign seating arrangements for a plane and theater.

I like the flash idea. I have seen this done as well, but I don't know if there is a quick and easy way to connect flash to a database. I know you can do some xml stuff with both flash and FMPro, but not sure how to connect the two.

You may also wish to look at the SVG examples in the Webviewer section. The possibilities are very interesting. Printing issues can be worked around by using the Opera browser to open and print documents.

Link

You could also look at other topics by The Shadow some interesting Webviewer stuff.