Design Help

[faaslave]

I am looking for any guidance on how to set up a database for a unique purpose.

The problem: In air traffic control facilities, we have postings on when restricted airspace is hot and what altitude clears it. It is currently done by posting this information on an excel spreadsheet displayed on an overhead. It is a royal pain and must be updated constantly.

Example: We get times which are always in GMT with altitude info that looks something like this:

airspace 1 - 320+ 28 0230 - 28 0400

---------- 240+ 28 0400 - 28 0530

---------- 280+ 28 0530 - 29 0200

So in this example, the airspace is hot below 320 thousand feet from 0230 - 0400 on the 28th, and so on. We always show the current info in one column and the next change in another column. We have several of these airspace areas with a long list of times.

I want to be able to use FM to enter these times, and have it display each airspace with its current status and the next change. Then when the time hits for a change it automatically updates the status and show the next change.

I would need to have a variable that can be set to display the time correctly such as +7, so that it looks at the current time and adds or subtracts this number to always display GMT.

I have never tried to tie something to the computers clock before. Is this possible?

Thanks, Dave

[comment]

Filemaker will not refresh a screen without some kind of prompt. You can have a looping script running, but you won't be able to do much else on that client. In version 10, you could use script scheduling, which is more user-friendly in this aspect.

Another option is to use the web viewer, with a bit of Javascript to keep the screen "live". Actually, you wouldn't even need Filemaker for this - you could export your data and load it into any web browser.

---

BTW, you may want to look at the Filemaker license regarding use in air traffic control systems.

[faaslave]

Thanks, I didn't think it could do it. The FAA already owns filemaker at work so licensing is not a problem. I was just trying to find a way that it could tie to the clock.

Dave

[faaslave]

Well after thinking about it, it still would be nice to be able to type all the times in when received, displaying the most current status and the upcoming status. Then when the time comes to switch, just click a button and the upcoming status becomes the current status, with the next one on deck.

I have no idea how to set it up yet, but I will be working on it.

Dave

[faaslave]

Is it possible using the Install OnTimer Script step to do what I want? If it could run every 5 minutes endlessly, it would work fine for me. Has anyone used this yet?

Dave

[Tanner]

Have you looked into the free plugin FMDoScript from FM butler? There is a bit of a learning curve but it has the ability to fire a script during idle time or you can fire a script at a scheduled time. If you did it based on a scheduled time when the script fires it could set the plugin to fire the same script at the next scheduled time.