How should I set a text or number flag field when any other field gets updated. Will the modification date will help me in doing that.

Edited February 12, 200817 yr by Guest

Hello,

The modification date will change , yes. but that by itself will not trigger a flag.

You will need zippscript, (www.zipptools.com), their example database has exactly what you require.

I humbly disagree here!

http://www.filemaker.com/help/FunctionsRef-34.html

But the need for flagging might reveal a poorly structured solution, you can't expect anything but stabs in the dark when being so secret about context and purpose ... for example can't you monitor changes to fields a relation away without obstacles!

--sd

Indeed , The Evaluate function will trigger when dependent fields are changed.As in this example from FM Help:

Evaluate("Get(CurrentTimeStamp)", [FieldB, FieldC])

Will put the timestamp into Field A once record is commited.But you will still need a reference field to compare the time stamp to in order to know if there has been any change.

Unless I'm missing something here..

The 2nd art of your post is directed to the OP, I assume.

The entire thing comes down to how loosly the term "flag" is defined, if you take:

http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/demos8/demo809.html

Could an unstored calc'field digest it into a flag'ish criteria if you wish....

--sd

It's neither necessary nor advisable to use Evaluate() for this. All that's required is a reference to the watched field/s, e.g.

Let (

trigger = WatchedField

;

ThisField & Get (CurrentTimeStamp) & ¶

)

This will create a new log entry each time the watched field is modified.

However, the original question was:

"How should I set a text or number flag field when any other field gets updated."

Of this I would ask: gets updated since when?

Of this I would ask: gets updated since when?

Indeed, but how about how

advisable

Would require an explanation, wouldn't it, I see that Ray pursue same strategy, in the template I refered to in my previous post.

My guess is that you and he mean this:

Q. How does the Evaluate() function perform compared to other functions…if is slower, why?

A. Have to parse it…can be more expensive, but take some parsing time…great to be able to use it but it may be more expensive. (CC)

...from the closing session of Devcon, refered from here:

http://fmcollective.com/2007/08/09/devcon-2007-closing-session/

Or, are there other implications??

--sd

Didn't we do this already?

and also:

 

Indeed! I merely hoped you could weigh further into the argument?

--sd

What, inefficient AND inconvenient is not convincing enough? What if I add the fact that your expression is not checked for entry errors? And that if the expression itself contains field references, it will break when those fields are renamed?

LOL enough, enough !!

--sd