The Perfect Timer

[Dr. Evil]

Solution: The Perfect Timer

Description: Hello All and thank you for your interest!

I have completed the Perfect Timer Demo!

Please check it out! Let me know if you find any bugs or have additional features you would like to see.

This file has not been throughly tested but so far I have found no problems.

This solution is as simple for the user to use as I can imagine.

Features include:

• Tracks time elapsed over days

• Uses only three main buttons; [sTART/STOP/PAUSE/CONTINUE], [EDIT ENTRY] and [RESET]

• Has a real time update/loop feature to show timer is running and how much time has elapsed

• Calculates time value determined by hourly rate entered

• Rounds time up to nearest quarter hour

I look forward to hearing some reviews and critique!

Working Under:

Solution Status: Beta

Pre-requisites:

Author(s): Dr. Evil

Date: 03/14/08

Credits: I have used techniques/tips/resources acquired from www.DatabasePros.com and www.fmforums.com to help in the development of this solution.

Instructions / Other Info:

Disclaimer:

FM Forums does not endorse or warrantee these files are fit for any particular purpose. Do not post or distribute files without written approval from the copyright owner. All files are deemed public domain unless otherwise indictated. Please backup every file that you intend to modify.

PerfectTimerDemo.fp7.zip

Edited March 15, 2008 by Guest
Updated file.

[Ocean West]

pretty nifty, I would recommend a LIST view of all timers and a description of what the timer is for.

[Lee Smith]

I thought this was an Egg Timer, but it acts like a Time Clock. If it is an Egg Timer, then IMO, it should be counting down, not accumulating the elapsed time. i.e. Set it for a two minute egg, and a bell, or something rings to let you know the time is up.

If I have over looked something, please let me know. BTW, if this is an egg timer, what is it's planned purpose. It it is a Time Clock, why is necessary to take the control of the computer over. i.e. if I'm clocked in to work on a project, I can't do it with your timer running. I don't see a way to shrink it to the Desktop, nor switch to another FileMaker file, all it did, was to keep jumping back to the timer.

BTW, I have seen Clock, and timer examples in FileMaker in the past, and this was a problems then too.

Hopefully I have missed something here.

Lee

Edited March 15, 2008 by Guest

[Dr. Evil]

I have added a list view along with a description field.

[Dr. Evil]

Hello Lee,

lol, this is not an Egg Timer. :

I designed this solution to be a tool on hourly billed services, e.g. consulting, lawyer, etc. In my case it is used to track creative time. Sense I build a quote using estimated time as a guide, it is important to know if I have under or over spent alloted time on a project.

FYI: This is not a fully working solution, it is meant to be used as a reference to build a Timer into your own solution.

On the "Taking over the computer" issue... With the designers here, they have a tendency to start a timer and then forget to stop it. So I have choose to lock them from doing anything else. Forcing them to start and stop timer. In my actual working db there is a field with all the info on the Assignment they are working on. With a timer, you should only be working on the Assignment in which timer is running on, hence the locking.

If you do not like the locking feature, you can simply remove

theAllow User Abort [Off]

Pause/Resume Script [indefinitely] in the scripts.

Thank you for taking the time to review my file. Feel free to ask any other questions! :

[Lee Smith]

Oops.

I didn't pick up on the fact that we have two different thread about a timer. I read this Thread countdown timer earlier today, and didn't realize it had nothing to do with your file.

Now that I understand the intent behind your file, it make perfect sense. I agree about remembering to; start, pause, continue, and end during the developing states,

I have used a couple of different timers over the years, and forget to do this myself. Forturnately for me, it is usually one client at a time, and I can reconstruct the times involved. It is when the Phone rings that problems arise for me : .

I'll test your file under my development, and let you know what I think later.

Lee

[color:red]p.s.

Take a look at this file Time by Fenton Jones.

Edited March 15, 2008 by Guest
p.s.

[vladisglad]

Very excellent. Thank you.

[Dr. Evil]

NEW FILE!

New solution attached with added features and functionality.

PerfectTimerDemo.fp7.zip

Edited March 21, 2008 by Guest
Fixed broken link.

[Lee Smith]

Broken Link has been fixed.

Nice file!

Edited July 25, 2008 by Guest

[Mark Jones]

I could use this time in our Cardboard Boat Regatta as a timer for the boats. I just got the code and looked at it. Would there be a issue if I had 2 timers going at once?

Thanks.

Mark Jones

[Mark Jones]

I basicly setup up 4 fields for time

Global field time stamp

Record start time time stamp

Record Stop time time stamp

Record calc difference between start and stop time stamps.

This works well as I could have between 1 - 5 boats or more starting to race at the same time. The first script called start sets the global time for all records then a loop script takes this time and pastes it into the start time field for each record racing. Then when I click on the stop time button on each record in list view it paste the time stamp into the stop time field for that record. Then as the rest of the boats comes in I click on the stop time button for that boat and it updates the time and shows the boat as raced.

I would like to figure out how to make the time

00:00:00 hours:Minutes:Seconds to just show 00:00

minutes:Seconds. Anyone have a clue for me to look at on this one?

Thanks

Mark Jones

[stanmcman]

Mark,

Change your field "Record Calc" to be calculation returning type "number" with the following:

Case(

Minute (Record Stop - Record Start) < 1; "00";

Minute (Record Stop - Record Start) < 10; "0" & Minute (Record Stop - Record Start);

Minute (Record Stop - Record Start)

) & ":" &

Case(

Seconds (Record Stop - Record Start) < 1; "00";

Seconds (Record Stop - Record Start) < 10; "0" & Seconds (Record Stop - Record Start);

Seconds (Record Stop - Record Start)

)

This will keep the 2 digit format for both minutes and seconds.

[Martin Taylor]

I have only just come across this post. When the timer runs I can't access any other FM databases. Is there some way of letting it run in the background? Thanks.

[comment]

If you want a live countdown/countup, use a web viewer - see an example here:

http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/71934-calculating-elapsed-time-realtime/#entry340205

 

For a native Filemaker way to capture elapsed time, see:

http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/74677-simple-timers/#entry353657

 

 

There's no reason why you couldn't run both at the same time, though there might be a tiny difference between the two clocks due to different priorities in the CPU run queue. I haven't tested this, so I don't know if it can get to a noticeable difference - I rather think not.