Today function

[kjanisse]

Hello all,

Everything I have read seems to indicate that in order to get the Today function to update itself, you must close the DBs on FMServer, then launch them in FileMaker, close them, then open them in FMServer again. As a test, I created a simple DB with a Calc field set to "Today". When I just close down the server and relaunch it again, the Today value gets updated (without having to open it in a regular verson of FM).

Is this middle step of using a regular version of FM necessary??

Thanks...

[markpro]

if the today function is being used to set a global field, that may be your problem as changes are only saved at the host machine to global fields.

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by KenJ:

Hello all,

Everything I have read seems to indicate that in order to get the Today function to update itself, you must close the DBs on FMServer, then launch them in FileMaker, close them, then open them in FMServer again. As a test, I created a simple DB with a Calc field set to "Today". When I just close down the server and relaunch it again, the Today value gets updated (without having to open it in a regular verson of FM).

Is this middle step of using a regular version of FM necessary??

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I thought so, but perhaps Filemaker did something in the new version of Server which makes this unnecessary. We are running FMP 5 and have not observered this. We still need to open the files in a copy of FMP Client.

Perhaps a client is being opened somewhere else and you are not seeing it.

[kjanisse]

Hi again, I just verified that the Today function does indeed update by just closing FM Server and relaunching it. I created a test DB with 3 fields:

Calc_Today: calculation is "Today"

EnterableDate: this is just a date field you can enter a date into

Calc_Difference: calculation is "Today - EnterableDate"

When I close then relaunch FM Server everything gets updated...

[Ocean West]

have you tried changing the system clock in between restarts?

[Ocean West]

have you tried changing the system clock in between restarts?

[DykstrL]

If you are using FMP 5 replace the TODAY functions with:

Status(CurrentDate)

Problem solved - there's no recalculation required.

[Ocean West]

In order to really test your theory you need LOTS of records and some complex math against the date, in most cases the reason why you don't see the update today is because it happens so fast on only a few records.