drag and drop

[Mikono]

Hi there,

Is there a possibility to define a icons toolbar that can be used to pick items and drop these in an area? What I am looking for is a graphical user interface that has the following functions:

- it has an area to drop items in

- it has a list of definable items

- an item can be choosen from a toolbar and can be dropped into the area (following Windows drag&drop conventions)

- each item has a set of attributes; each attribute links to a field in a Filemaker database tabel

- the moment an item is dropped into the are, the corresponding attribute values are added to a new record in the Filemaker database

So my question boils down to: is there any way known (Filemaker Solution/plug-in, or other) that offers this functionality?

[yafreax]

GEEZZ, BEEN TRYING TO POST THIS FOR TWO DAYS, SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG.

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Two things come to mind as i played around VERY little with it.

First off, drag and drop will work from one container field to the next. As for assigning specific values to different fields based on what icon is where, you can have calculation fields in the form as follows:

Case(ContainerField1=GetRepetition(ICONBARFIELD, 1), "Value of icon 1",

ContainerField1=GetRepetition(ICONBARFIELD, 2), "Value of Icon 2", "default value")

And so on and so forth for however many icons you have. Only problem you may face is that, since it is a calculation field, there can be no user input into the fields. If this is a problem, then you could use a script rather than calculation fields, that uses nested If Statements in much of the same manor. If you do this, then the layout basically has to have required user interaction (pushing of a button) to trigger the script. For example, the layout only includes the icon bar and the fields that the icons can be dragged to, then upon user completion, a button is pushed that allows the users to get to where they need to go to access other fields.

Another possible thought:

use a different container field for each Icon, set the field to a button, instead of using drag and drop, when a user clicks on a icon, it performs a script that Copy (all contents) of the respective Icon field. Then the user would click on the field that they want to "drop" the icon into. Define this field as a button that performs a script that: A. Paste (select all) into the Container field; B: sets the other fields that have variable info based on the Icon to it's specific values.

The first is a little more user and programmer friendly, but can have some speed bumps such as it either limits what can be in the variable fields ( through the calcs) or it requires user interaction and possible a strange layout set up.

The second is a lot more work for you, because you have to create a script for each seperate Icon field, and for each seperate "Paste" field. But the user interaction is basically the same as a drag and drop system. Maybe it'd be better named "Click 'n Stick."

This was mostly off a few minutes of trying stuff and the top of my head, so if it doesn't work, sorry, but maybe it'll get some juices flowing.

jeremy

Thought of a couple of other things while the site was having problems, but i won't get into those unless you need me to.

[Mikono]

Hello Jeremy,

Thanx for pointing my thoughts in the right direction.

I must admit I am a beginner at this. I tried the container field, and it looks promising. I found out how to write a script, if I only could let the script be triggered by the drop of the container field into another container field I'ld be save I guess. I would then be able to write a script that let me add a record and fill its fields. Does a container drop action has an OnDrop event? btw: I am using a trial version of FileMaker Pro 5 at the moment. Do I need FileMaker Developer?

Although a good idea, the Click-n-Stick concept is not acceptable for the user interface, they want to be able to drag&drop (much like Visio eg.)

best regards,

Hans

[yafreax]

developer is basically used to take existing FM solutions and turn them into slightly more dynamic solutions such as kiosk solutions (your FM solution on a black screen with no menus, thus everything controlled by buttons) or runtime solutions. It also eases in converting and changing file names without breaking relationsips. So, no, you don't need it.

As for an OnDrop type event, no there is not one. But you may look into Troi plug in's. They have a lot of nice ones. www.troi.com . There is a plug-n called FMScheduler or ScriptScheduler or something to that effect, i'm not sure if it is troi, but it's been mentioned in some other posts if you want to do a search for it in these forums. It might help as well.

If worse comes to worse, you might just have to suck it in and say "hey, look guys, FM doesn't have real Drag and Drop capabilites, but if we can just do it this way, which is almost the same (the "click'n'stick" ) it will work just fine." Hopefully, though, there is a plug in that can help you out there somewhere.

Good luck, keep us posted and i'll also let you know if i run across anything.

Jeremy