Tabs on layouts that have scripts

[SteveB]

I've got scripts attached to some date fields. These scripts cause a mini pop-up calendar to appear. It seems that if you tab into the field, the script doesn't work properly...the calendar never appears. It works right if I click into the field. Does anybody have a solution?

[Vaughan]

Apart from getting a plug-in, you can disable tabbing and force the user to click by removing the field (or all of them) from the layout's tab order.

[bbaliner]

the plugin Vaghan is refering to is Event Scheduler from Waves In Motion. It'll let you trigger a script by tabbing in or out of the field.

[SteveB]

The Waves in Motion plugin works on field exit, not entry.

Vaughan: I've already taken the tabs out...what I wanted to know was there a solution that would let me put them back?

[goostree]

What if you put your tabs back in and attached the Waves in Motion plugin to the field before your calendar field in the tab order? That way the script would run when you exited that field and the calendar (the field you were tabbing to) would pop up at the right time.

[andygaunt]

goosetree,

exactly the thought I was going to put in. You beat me to it.

good call

[SteveB]

Nice try, but that won't work right. If the previous field (not a date field) requires changing, as soon as the user exits, the calendar will popup requiring the user to respecify a date, which in turn will cause the calendar to pop on the next field. These layouts (a whole bunch) get partially set up, and then the user adds / changes stuff as additional information becomes available.

To make all this work the way I think it should, Filemaker would have to do the following (I don't think I'll hold my breath waiting, given their abominable track record in fixing existing bugs):

1) Execute an attached script regardless of whether or not the user cursored or tabbed into a field (to me this is clearly a bug).

2) Allow us to turn off tabbing on a given layout under script control (really an enhancement).

What they've given us only works under very rigid conditions. I think I'm stuck without tabs.

[Vaughan]

Steve

Just to clarify things: I don't mean "tabs" as in paragraph formatting; I mean "tab order" as in Layout mode, "Set Tab Order" command. because if the fields are omitted from the tab order they cannot be tabbed into!

[SteveB]

Vaughan: I knew exactly what you mean't. Thanks, but I guess there is no good solution until FM gets off its collective butt.

Steve