Hi,

we are working in a company that interested to invest on filemaker but since we are located in middle east and we need solar calendar for our calculation.

but I haven't found anything about solar calendar in FM.

I just want to know is there any third party component for this purpose in FM or is it possible to write a specific date field for FM?

regards.

we need solar calendar for our calculation.

Which one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_calendar

I didn't know that we have several types of solar calendar.

we need "jalali calendar"

thanks in advance.

I presume you mean the modern Iranian (Solar Hejri) calendar - not the medieval Jalali calendar?

I suppose this could be calculated, though I am not sure how difficult that would be. However, see this warning:

http://www.farsiweb.ir/wiki/FAQ/Calendar_algorithm

hi

thanks for your response.

actually I know how to calculate "solar hijri" in other words I have the algorithm.

but the thing is I don't know how to implement it in FM I mean I want to create a date field but have "solar hijri" behavior not "Christian" behavior.

is there any solution for creating such this kind of field in FM.

or do you have any idea of how to convert different calendars to each other?

and also does the converted calendar have the same behavior as original date (like sorting and stuffs)?

regards.

I am not sure what exactly you mean by behavior. You cannot force a Date field to follow a calendar other than the Gregorian calendar. For example, if you try to enter a date such as "1389-2-30" you will get an error, because there's no February 30, 1389 in the Gregorian calendar. Similarly, you cannot format "1389-9-2" to display as "Azar 2".

However, you CAN program the same functionality yourself, using a Text field for entry - with some calculations taking place "behind the scenes". For example, to calculate the difference between two "dates" you would convert both to Filemaker (Gregorian) date and subtract one from the other.

hi ,

what I mean by behavior is what I've mentioned in my previous post "sorting".

I mean a correct sorting in date field in FM.

assume I have a working "jalili calendar" algorithm in FM and I've implemented it already.

does my "jalili" date fields sort correctly like the regular(christian) date fields?

this is my big concern about customized date field in FM.

and if there is a implemented source for "lunar calendar" (the arabic calendar) around would you please give me a clue about that? I think by looking at some other calendar types in FM I can find out how to fix this issue in FM.

regards.

Your Jalali "date" field, being a Text field, will be sorted alphabetically. If your entries are formatted as YYYY-MM-DD, then the sort order will be correct.

However, if you also have a calculation field that converts the Jalali date into a true date (i.e. one that Filemaker understands as a date), you can simply sort by this field instead.

You don't even need to convert the Jalali date all the way to the Gregorian calendar: if you have an algorithm that produces a serial day number, such as "x days since ", you can sort by that (and actually, converting such number to a Filemaker date is rather trivial).

I am not sure about full implementations, but you might have a look at these:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/175809/

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/138935/

I read the discussion on the Hebrew calendar. Fascinating.

I just did a quick read of the wikipedia article on the hebrew calendar and now begin to understand the reason for the complexity.

This one doesn't look simple either. What's even worse, they don't seem to agree on a common method among themselves: I've seen at least three versions as to what is actually the first day of the calendar - and that's just the beginning... :(

comment ,

thanks for your answer.