No "List (Field)" in FMP 8?

[Wickerman]

Hi -- I set up a database recently using FMP 11 Advanced but need to work for a client running FMP8. I thought I was keeping things simple, but it turns out that a calc function I used to create an important list made up of a certain field's across all child recors doesn't work in 8? The function is simply

List (ChildTable: Field1)

How does one achieve the same effect without using this function?

Also, now I seem to recall that there's some way of checking a file for compatibility with earlier version of FMP? Is that right? Where's that located?

Thanks

[comment]

The List() function was added in version 8.5. As for alternatives, it depends on what you need this for.

[Wickerman]

Well, I have a database that I designed for building the html for a web-page that lists performance events . I have global fields that hold the various html tags, which calc fields employ to buld the various chunks of code -- for example, a chunk for every event, which then gets pulled into a related table that builds up the groups of events by State. So on the State level I use

List (Events::Event_html)

. . . to stack up all those uniform chunks of code into a single html document that I can copy and upload to the web.

Any hope?

[comment]

Hope springs eternal... but I am afraid I didn't get your explanation.

The important points here are (a) the handling of duplicate values and ( the sort order of the values. If you can live with an alphabetical list that contains no duplicates, you could probably use ValueListItems() instead (after defining a suitable value list, of course). Otherwise you'd need a custom function (or a repeating calculation field).

BTW, have you considered exporting as XML and using a XSLT stylesheet to create the HTML?

[bruceR]

Well, I have a database that I designed for building the html for a web-page that lists performance events . I have global fields that hold the various html tags, which calc fields employ to buld the various chunks of code -- for example, a chunk for every event, which then gets pulled into a related table that builds up the groups of events by State. So on the State level I use

List (Events::Event_html)

. . . to stack up all those uniform chunks of code into a single html document that I can copy and upload to the web.

Any hope?

You'll need to use a custom function; such as:

http://www.briandunning.com/cf/1093

[Wickerman]

Well, let's just say I have a table Called "States" where each record is a State. (Texas, Maine, Oregon).

I have a child table "Events". Each State can have many events, each Event happens in only one state. All records are unique, as each record represents one State or one individual Event.

Let's say in the Events table I have three fields which get expressed in HTML

ORGANIZATION is in bold

ADDRESS is in plain text.

EMAIL is a live email link.

So I have a pretty simple field with a Calculation that concatenates these three pieces of information by nesting them in appropriate html tags like ORGANIZATION . I used Global fields to hold those html tags, because I wanted to be able to change some of them by just changing those tags.

So on the State Table I have a calculation field that takes the html field for all the events in a particular state and nests *them* within larger tags that provide State headings in the listings. The whole thing winds up looking like this:

http://www.homemovieday.com/transferhouses.html

The List (Events::Event_html) works perfectly well for my purposes in version 11. I have a working system, and I have a friend who needs to be able to use it this summer but can't afford to upgrade from 8. I'd rather not have to re-do the whle thing.

I *would* like to learn more about XSLT Stylesheets to produce HTML more easily. Could you direct me to a good resource for learning how? My Filemaker Pro 9 Bible not-so-helpfully says "You can do this" but offers no guidance in learning how.

But I frankly don't have time to engage in a whole lot of study and concept-building for this particular task -- by the time I figure it out it will be too late. I'm just hoping to find some way to achieve something equivalent to the List function.

Thanks for your time.

[Wickerman]

By the way, I'm not a web designer. Please don't anybody waste time critiquing the html on that page or point out the border issue, which I'm aware of. Now, if you know of a good web designer willing to do pro-bono web-design for a penniless non-profit organization, that *would* be helpful.

[comment]

As I said, you could use a custom function. Try something like (untested)

ListRelated ( fieldName ; startRecord ; endRecord )

GetNthRecord ( fieldName ; startRecord )

&

Case ( endRecord > startRecord ; ¶ & ListRelated ( fieldName ; startRecord + 1 ; endRecord ) )

which you would call as =

ListRelated ( Events::HTML ; 1 ; Count ( Events::StateID ) )

But IMHO your case is an excellent candidate for XML export. There are plenty of XSLT resources on the web, and quite a few practical examples in this forum.

BTW, if you're not happy with your design, perhaps you could use this:

http://www.oswd.org/

[Wickerman]

Thanks very much for all the help -- working a-ok now!