anyone willing to review?

[Mark Reed]

Hello all,

I am near completion on what I consider my first "real" FMP application. I pretty much home schooled myself on it - along with the help of many of you here. Thank you.

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to look over my fp7 file and see how I approached things and if there are any glaring mistakes I may have made in terms of proper development?

Basically this app is a tool where art vendors will submit new images and a spreadsheet that will get imported. It offers a spec view and a list view. You can choose art and create a catalog of the chosen items. Pretty simple in nature - but many of the needed bells and whistles kept me challenged.

Any advice, criticisms, or tips would be appreciated.

Art_Database.zip

Edited June 11, 2009 by Guest

[jamesducker]

From a very brief look the only hole I managed to pick in it was that the delete button doesn't seem to work.

The only other thing I might do is remove the red warning at the top left when you are in find mode (it is great when you have a filtered set in browse mode, but not so helpful in find mode) and maybe replace it with a quick handy user's guide to the symbols one can use in find mode eg range, less than, greater than etc... or maybe have the search on a different view. Matter of opinion though.

Otherwise it looks nice, although I have a feeling the icons may be someone else's copyright ;-) and I guess it works for you, so a good job well done.

Cheers

J

[netcode]

Hello.

I took a look at your database.

I didn't dig into the code, or the structure so I cannot comment on those aspects.

However I really like the presentation. It is very well laid out and the design makes its easy on the eyes and easy to use. Very well done for the first time around.

I am fairly new to FMP and am self taught as well. I have been using it for about one year now and I have yet to step into the realm of design.

Thumbs up

-B

Edited June 19, 2009 by Guest

[LaRetta]

Hi Mark,

I would suggest that you have an Artist table with an ArtistID auto-enter since one Artist can have many Titles (then you won't have to type the Artist information each time, which opens up possibility of error). Then you will want a Titles table (which will hold the auto-enter TitlesID and also the ArtistID). And since one Title can have Prints, you would want a PrintsID as well as the associated TitlesID (you won't need the ArtistID here because the TitlesID will tell you who the artist is (through the relationship).

In addition, every table should contain a creation timestamp and modification timestamp. This will be critical if you ever have a crash or have to go back to prior copy and import into new clone.

Your Art Database table only says RecordID. Firstly, this should reflect that it is the primary key for the table, such as ArtistID, TitlesID etc. Secondly, since FileMaker generates this number itself, you don't need all the validations (which only waste resources evaluating), such as Unique, Not Empty and Strict Number. If you ever display a tables primary ID anywhere, set the field to disallow entry in browse mode.

I would de-jitterize your file, ie, you have quite a bit of flashing when you move through the records. You might want to search here for +flash +effect and +flash +arrest to find techniques which will 'calm' your layouts down. One small example. Use your scroll on your mouse and move quickly through your records. As you do, look at your RecordID number to the right of your arrow indicators. Watch how much it flashes. One small technique ... you have the fill pattern on that field set to transparent (top left square in fill pattern) and that's why it jitters. If you set the pattern to top second square from left (solid) and then watch what happens to it.

Overall, you have a very good eye for color and balance - nice work!!

UPDATE: The existing table can be the Titles table. If you would like an example of what I'm talking about, I'll be happy to create one for you using your file/data for example (of the proper structure). I would be happy to even explain how to assign and related the various pieces into a proper relational structure since I've converted many of these types of files.

Edited June 19, 2009 by Guest
Added update