Refreshing screens on all client stations simultaneously

[Jarvis]

I have a columnar list type database that establishes priorities for tasks and monitors status of these tasks.

This database lives on a web-based dedicated server.

I have been very careful to keep all the handshakes simple.

The database only has two tables. The majority of formulas etc reside on just one table. The second table consists of a match field and worker names that I use to populate task assignments.

I make extensive use of conditional formatting.

The default fill pattern for all tasks is white.

If the task priority = "NEXT", the fill pattern turns yellow.

If the task priority = "HOT", the fill pattern turns red.

If the task status is "DONE", the pattern turns orange.

Task status & priority is established with scripted buttons.

Upon clicking the button the script also sorts tasks with RED tasks at the top of the screen and Orange (completed) tasks at the bottom.

Everything works fine on a client station basis. The station you are at when you click the button does the color changes and completes the sorting. All the other stations,however, only see changes on the fill pattern but do not sort.

[color:red]Is there a way to make each screen refresh simultaneously?

Could this be accomplished with an event-handler plug in?

Could the plug-in live on just the server or does each station

(there are four of them) need a copy of the plug in?

Thanks for all your help so far,

Jarvis

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Well, since each client user has his or her own found set of records--indeed his or her own locally cached copy--the sort won't occur based on what someone else does. An event plug-in might help you address this issue.

You said:

This database lives on a web-based dedicated server.

What do mean by this, especially "web-based" server?

Steven

[Jarvis]

Steven,

The last time I posted a similar question you suggested that the more intricate the database, the more places there were for data transfer to deteriorate.

At that time I was having difficulty getting the conditional formatting to behave on a server like it did on a single workstation. I cleaned up the code and now I can get the fill patterns to change color properly but cannot get the sorts to happen. Your explanation about individual caches makes a lot of sense. I don't have any experience with event handler plugins but I'm hoping since colors refresh simultaneously that sorting will too.

Until just recently all of my efforts at client station to client station interface have been local, via either the built in filesharing or, for a while, Filemaker Server 7. The "web-based" server I allude to is a database that is hosted for me by a company called dbdom.com. I was thinking that maybe just the addition of having to bounce everything off a satellite was having some ill effect.

The individual cache idea, however, makes most sense.

I'm a cabinetmaker, not a programmer. So sometimes I make this stuff up in my mind.

Thanks for your thoughts on this,

Jarvis

[Steven H. Blackwell]

I'm a cabinetmaker, not a programmer. So sometimes I make this stuff up in my mind.

LOL. This is frequently the best--and the only--approach to preserving sanity.

Steven