Question re FM Advanced (e-z)

[mikedr]

I'm "this close" to pulling the trigger on the upgrade . . . but one question. In Advanced, is it possible to do a search of all scripts for any reference to a given function? I'm doing some script maintenance right now, and realize it would be a lot easier to see all scripts that reference a given function in any command as opposed to going through each script one by one . . . . .

[doughemi]

In Advanced, you can create a Database Design Report, which can contain all scripts.  It is output either as an HTML or XML file.  Those files can be searched for whatever term  you wish.

[LaRetta]

Hi Mike,

 

The best investment you can make is to purchase Developer Assistant.  Once you use it, you will never do without again.

 

http://www.dracoventions.com/products/2empowerFM/family/developer.php

 

It is VERY VERY fast.  You do not need to stop and create DDR.  Place your cursor in the first script, type part of whatever you wish to find and it'll run through everything and find it.  It does SO MUCH MORE than this.  I keep it open always and use it multiple times every single day.  If you speak with most top developers, you will find that most of them use it as well and for very good reason.  

I also use it to search for <unkwown> or broken references.

[bruceR]

But I would still get advanced, it is absolutely vital. Script debugger and variable watcher are must have features.

[LaRetta]

Ah.  I hadn't realized that Mike was asking about purchasing FMP Advanced ( I STILL wish they hadn't change its name) ...

 

Yes absolutely, FMP Advanced is critical and even more so than ANY other action you could take.  Thanks for bring it up, Bruce!

[Lee Smith]

Hi  Mike,

 

I moved your topic from "FileMaker 13 General Discussion" to "Advanced & Developer Features” because it was more about the Advance then version 13.

 

If you are considering an upgrade to Advance, then read about the tools and some of the changes it make easier that will make things easier, here FileMaker Pro Advance Tools,

 

Personally, I think they should have a Demo of both products, Advance and Client, that way a person could test both products and compare how differently they do some things. I’d bet that they would increase their sales if they did.

 

BTW, I use the Developer Assistant too mentioned by LaRetta too.

 

HTH

 

Lee

 

.

[mikedr]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!  I'm definitely going to go ahead and get the developer assistant tool.  I jumped the gun a bit, and ended up last night just going through all my scripts looking for the function call in question.  It was actually an educational experience, as I saw some inefficiencies in my early developed scripts (particularly, instead of simply jumping to the related records in another table, I was doing a search for the all the related records.  E.g., for a one-to-many relationship by ID number, instead of just going to the "many" records and going through them, I was doing a search in the table of the "many" records by the ID number.), so that was fun.

 

The primary reason I'm a little gunshy about pulling the trigger to upgrading to Advanced is I'm concerned it won't be completely smooth, and I'll waste a day getting everything back to where it was.  I know the likelihood of this is very low.  But I've learned that upgrading never seems to go as smoothly as it should.

 

I also hate the name "Pro Advanced."  It should just be "Advanced."  Or, call "Pro," "Standard" and "Advanced," "Pro."  But, cest la vie.

 

In case anyone wonders why I needed to locate a function in every script . . . I rely heavily on Troi's Dialog plugin, and they have a feature by which you can specify the type of dialog box icon, stop, caution, note, you show.  Adds a professional touch.  You can also specify custom.  I noticed in Yosemite (and perhaps earlier) that Yosemite adds a small version of the application icon to the lower right hand corner of the stop, caution, and note icons in many dialog boxes.  I liked the look, so I had our logo superimposed in the same way on the stop, caution, and note icons, and added them in a new icons table to our database.  I then created a script that receives "caution, stop, or note" (can do others in the future) as a parameter, and calls the set custom icon function that Troi provides to set the appropriate icon.  But, for every call to show a dialog, I had to change this to use the custom icon, and further add a call script command to set the appropriate icon. 

 

It didn't take more than a couple of hours to go through all the scripts looking for dialog box set up calls, and again was educational.  And now our solution looks a little more polished.    I've attached a sample with the custom note icon.

 

[hbrendel]

Go to 'Manage Scripts'

Select All Scripts (Ctrl/Cmd A)

Print to PDF (easy on Mac, you need a PDF-printer on Windows)

You can search the resulting pdf-document for anything

[mikedr]

Go to 'Manage Scripts'

Select All Scripts (Ctrl/Cmd A)

Print to PDF (easy on Mac, you need a PDF-printer on Windows)

You can search the resulting pdf-document for anything

 

Oh sure, NOW you tell me.   

[LaRetta]

14 will be out this spring.  Why not wait until then to purchase FMP Advanced.  BTW, it used to be called DEVELOPER (and had AFAIK for all prior years since its beginning) and it was easy to keep straight from FMS Advanced.  FMI changed it to Advanced which was a difficult switch for all of us who called it Developer forever. 

 

As for printing scripts and searching, sure.  But using Developer Assistant brings up the script instantly LIVE as it searches for easy changes or notes can be added directly in the scripts without one having to:

1. Print all scripts to PDF
2. Search each script individually
3. Then if change is needed, open that script
4. Find that line within the script and make the change

As said, it is extremely fast in ONE step, zooming through all scripts in an instant.  And it does a lot more as well.

[Wim Decorte]

Yep, printing and searching is poor substitute.  Apart from the Developer Assistant, I live in BaseElements every day, all day.  Nothing like being able to track something down and drill down and up into dependencies.

[LaRetta]

Yes, Wim!  Base Elements is important particularly for the dependencies!  For reviewing layout objects and themes, I turn to  http://workflowdata.com/fmxrayspecs.html which is free (Mac only right now).

 

As a developer working on many other people's files or collaborating with other developers, we also count on http://fmdiff.com which shows file recoveries and comparisons between versions, although you might not need this one yet, Mike. :-)

[Lee Smith]

hbrendel, on 25 Jan 2015 - 07:33 AM, said:

Go to 'Manage Scripts'

Select All Scripts (Ctrl/Cmd A)

Print to PDF (easy on Mac, you need a PDF-printer on Windows)

You can search the resulting pdf-document for anything

On the Mac, you can Print to PDF using the Open PDF in Preview Option. You can then do your search in Preview.

BTW, I bypass printing to PDF in favor of copying and pasting it into a text editor. I use TextMate and a FileMaker Bundle by ISO Magazine that colors the code and allows you to tidy it up, making it easier to read and to catch problems.

The FileMaker Bundle by ISO Magazine can be downloaded from here. Editors

Edited January 25, 2015 by Lee Smith
made the post clearer.