I've seen these << >> on Report layouts. How are they used?

I guess a more appropriate question would be. I have users select a date range when creating a report and I would like the date range of the report to be displayed in the header.

Q1. The "<< >>" is what Filemaker puts around a merged field in Layout mode. In Layout, see the Insert Menu - Merge Field (down the bottom).

Q2. To display a range of dates you would end up with a display in Layout mode which looks like:

. This report is from <<date 1>> to <<date 2>>

You then format the date as you require. The Browse/Preview display of this would then be:

. This report is from 21 Jan 2002 to 11 Mar 2002

Russ Baker

Canberra, Australia

The Land of TWOGM

Russ,

I don't mean to sound stupid but where are you getting the date1 and date 2 field from? A search screen? Record creation date? ...

Michael,

Sorry, In giving my 2 cents worth I assumed you already had a couple of date fields which you used to set the range of dates you were looking for. These were the "Date1" and "Date2" fields.

Searching for a date range is easy if you just want to type in the "date...date" standard range Find criteria in Filemaker. But do your users know about the "..." trick?

Now, if you want to use these 2 search dates elsewhere (like in the merge text on the layout) or perhaps have one of them set automatically - like Status(CurrentDate) then it becomes a bit trickier to set up but much more user-friendly. Lets assume the date in each record is in a field called "DateOfEvent".

Give your users a screen to find the date range and get them to input the dates into 2 global fields, g_SearchDateStart and g_SearchDateFinish. "..." is not needed. Then, to execute the find, run a script which:

Enter Find Mode []

Insert Calculated Result [select, "DateOfEvent","DateToText(g_SearchDateStart)&"..."&DateToText(g_SearchDateFinish)"]

Perform Find []

*** Make sure all the boxes in both Find script steps are NOT checked.

In your header for the page, just type in this following text, using the Insert Merge Field menu step as required:

"Records for the period <<g_SearchDateStart>> to <<g_SearchDateFinish>>"

Does this answer your question or am I now waaaaay off the planet?

Russ Baker

Canberra, Australia

The Land of TWOGM

Thank you! I understand now.

Question:

Is it possible to run a report on records in a portal and return just those records that meet the criteria...?

Michael,

I'd wait and see what the wiser heads have to say, but I prefer to produce reports within the database that actually holds the data. Printing portals can get a bit strange especially if they get over 1 page, and you don't have the same degree of flexibility with summaries etc.

I would Copy your criteria and then run a script which calls an external script in the child database, using those criteria. Then at the end of the report script in the child databases, a script step to return you to the parent database.

If you are confident that your report won't get huge and you don't need fancy reports, then by including your criteria in a portal key field, the portal becomes a de-facto report.

Russ

Even FileMaker Inc say that portals are not really designed for printing. For instance, the Sliding/Printing feature does not work in portals.

Do it in the related database. It works out easier in the long run.