Filemaker 10 seems to be fixing a lot of my pet peeves. One of my other problems is when a user selects a field to enter data but never commits the records. Using script triggers I can finally solve that problem.

Jeff

TimerCommit.fp7.zip

Never commits? What do you mean--that they have the record locked unnecessarily?

Yes sorry I wasn't more specific. This is a problem I have with record locking in a multiuser environment.

Cool.. but isn't this a bit dangerous?

If you leave it for 10 seconds, you could run into some problems. However I think if the timer is set for 300 seconds (5 min) that would be a good amount of time and I don't think you would run into any problems.

From a user experience perspective, it's helpful to think of what prior models users already bring to the table when working with your app - things you don't have to teach them to internalize.

With timeouts, most people's main assumptions are based on their experience with web browsers, where the behavior is the opposite of what you're doing - the record reverts.

The other metaphor most folks are used to is the concept of saving a draft on timeout - which would be more complex to implement, but at least is something users have encountered before. Outlook Web Access works this way, for instance.

Automatically committing on timeout? I can see making a business case for it, but it's not what most folks are used to.

And yes, it can be dangerous, depending on the situation. Especially if you walk away from your credit-card enabled FM app for coffee and your cat walks across the keyboard, adding ten zeros to the payment amount.

No problem.. payment would be refused by the bank...

good points. I think reverting is the most logical thing to do. Maybe add in a warning first.

I've never like the way FM does record commits. Users type a number and then cannot understand why a total has not changed. How many times I've had to tell users to "click off" I cannot count.

You can go into layoutsetup and use the script triggers there to do onlayoutkeystroke and set it run the "trigger" script.. for those who want to implement something like this on an existing solutions with hundreds of fields.. lol it will apply it to the all the fields on that layout :-)