adding a drawing

[chiefmsb]

how can i have the ability to draw on a field. eg. i want to have a drawing of a human body and allow the user to draw on it where there are scars or abnormal features.

thanks

[Agnes Riley]

I think you're best off handling this from the web end. Have a web site that stores the images and allows for modification. Then show that site in a web viewer in FileMaker. Sadly, there are more tools available for web development.

[chiefmsb]

would it be possible to access a drawing program from within a layout, do the drawing, and then save it in the database in a container field.

thanks

[TheTominator]

Using a Web Viewer you can allow drawing and display without needing an external webserver. It can all be done with local values in your database.

Here is an example of doing this to let the user draw their signature and have it stored.

http://campsoftware.com/blog/signature-capture-filemaker-implementation/

(Note that this only works in Mac OS X and iOS. The Windows Web Viewer has a bug affecting the ability to get update source data after a form submission.)

In your case you would present the drawing of a human body as the background image of the web viewer both in the drawing part and in the display part.

Working with a container field instead would require either some clever platform-specific scripting (e.g. AppleScript) or a special-purpose FileMaker plug-in.

Edited October 27, 2010 by Guest

[chiefmsb]

how would the drawing be saved in the database.

[TheTominator]

how would the drawing be saved in the database.

In the link showed above, the drawing is saved in a text field as drawing instructions for the Web Viewer.

If you are finding a way to save as a container using a plug-in or OS-level scripting, the drawing would be saved in a container field in whatever format you choose as a compromise between what can be viewed in a container and what can be edited in your third-party app.

[chiefmsb]

do you refer to a web site that is on the local network and then put some kind of drawing program on that.

thanks