Managing the New Status Area

One of the more interesting new features in the just released FileMaker® Pro 10 allows users to customize the newly redesigned Status Area by dragging icons into the Status Area and also by deleting such icons.

There may be circumstances however where such actions could have unexpected or unanticipated consequences for the business processes that the database is supposed to address and manage. Developers have some options to manage these activities and their concomitant results.

1. For any given Privilege Set, removing a privilege in the file, for example, printing, will disable the Print icon a user may drag into the Status Area. The icon will still be there, but it will be disabled.

2. By use of the Custom Menus, developers can change the behavior of a command, again for example the print command, and have some other scripted action occur when that command is invoked. Doing so will also affect the behavior of the related icon the user introduces into the Status Area.

3. Hiding and locking the Status Area altogether.

Developers should always carefully test their assumptions about User Interface behaviors before deploying files.

Steven