Variables in messages??

[charper]

Is there anyway to have variables display in messages in FMP 4.1?

[Chuck]

Not with the Show Message script step. There are three ways around this:

One: If you are on the Mac, you can use AppleScript.

Two: If you are on Windows, or don't want to use AppleScript you can use a plug-in such as Troi's Dialog plug-in or MacDialog or WinDialog.

Three: If you want to make it cross platform and don't want to add a plug-in, you can create what I call a "faux" dialog box. You create what looks like a dialog in a FileMaker layout and when you need the dialog, you go to the layout that it is on.

Chuck

[charper]

I like your third solution the best. But how would one get such messages to appear on top of the current layout (i.e. with the current layout remaining in the background)? I guess the message layout would have to be in a seperate file since each FMP file displays only one window. Is my thinking correct here?

[Chuck]

That's exactly it. You can construct the layout to look almost exactly like a standard OS (Mac or Windows) dialog box or with a custom look to it. You can also use the Status( CurrentPlatform ) function to have a dialog that looks like a Mac and a dialog that looks like Windows and go to the appropriate one depending on what the user is running. Then you script the dialog to appear by running an external script in the dialogs file. Often this file can serve double-duty by having the layout in the Main Menu file. Then zoom the window in the script so that the window shrinks to the size of the layout and set the status area to be hidden. Then have buttons in the layout that run scripts to take the user back to the file they came from.

Chuck

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by charper:

I like your third solution the best. But how would one get such messages to appear on top of the current layout (i.e. with the current layout remaining in the background)? I guess the message layout would have to be in a seperate file since each FMP file displays only one window. Is my thinking correct here?

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This is a slightly goofy solution as it is possible for the user to close the window, or click behind it or any number of other wierd things and the rest of the solution goes on or does not depending upon what you are expecting the dialog to do.

This kind of thing works better for toolbars and other truely floating type functionality. Also on the Windows platform, it has the problem of unmaximizing the other windows, which causes some goofyness to the interface.

The Troi plugin is pretty good, cross platform and easy to operate. Its only fault is that is a pretty generic looking dialog and does not chnage appearance depending on your needs.

Another option is to actually create a dialog layout, which places the dialog box above your layout. You can then make the rest of the layout with non-enterable fields and buttons that do nothing so that the user can be clicking behind the dialog. Alternately you could simply have a big container field behind the dialog and just copy and paste the screen into the container at runtime.

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Kurt Knippel

Consultant

Database Resources

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.database-resources.com

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[Vaughan]

Now there's a thought... use the trick of changing to Preview mode, Copy (this takes a screenshot of the layout) then paste the image into a global field. Change to a layout that has the global field in the background with a faux dialog box on top, and display the desired message inside this layout. The result is a system that generates "generic" layout-specific dialog boxes.

Is there a potential downside -- you bet! There will be a slow-down especially for network and multi-users due to the preview/copy/paste and it could be significant. Many people detest the use of cut/copy/paste because it loses the user's clipboard contents. Others? Probably. A lot of work?, sure. Have I tried it? Nope.

[charper]

Very inspiring solutions, gentlemen. Thankyou. I'll be mulling them over.