Field Auto-Save

[rivet]

I had a client who took extensive notes during phone calls and occasionally they would loose the notes because of an interuption between FMP client and server.  To help with the issue I created a small script to auto-save the notes on a timed interval, while the field is active.  In this example I have the interval set to 12 sec. and to give the user an indication of when the auto-save happens, I have scripted an apple notifcation for Mac (10.9+) users and a title bar change for PC users.  -enjoy

 

If you see any way of improving please post update sample.

RIVET field auto-save v1a.zip

[Wim Decorte]

I like the demo.  But having said that; networks should be more stable than that and I would urge a lot of effort to be put in troubleshooting the network and finding the root cause instead of tackling the symptoms.

[rivet]

actually I believe its just the client walking away from her laptop before committing the record and then the laptop goes into sleep mode.

[bruceR]

Interesting. Small error in the script; you never declare $interval , so the message says this will occur "every  seconds"

[rivet]

Thanks Bruce, I fixed that and I also added a check against Get ( RecordOpenState ) to avoid the save if the record is not open.

RIVET field auto-save v1b.fmp12

[Chad Adams]

Nice sample file. 

I just did something similar for a user with an iPad who would make changes while in the field (WAN connection via cellular network), and would habitually forget to "save" his work before sleeping the iPad.

I found that special consideration had to be taken for fields in portals, container fields and fields with a control style applied (like drop down calendar or pop-up menu). Have you ran into similar issues?

You can see how I worked around those issues here: http://www.skeletonkey.com/ios-save-data/

I especially like your notifications. It wasn't needed in my situation, but is pretty cool none the less. 

[bruceR]

Here's a mod where I add conditional formatting to the time stamp filed so you can see when auto-save is turned on. And I added a refresh window action at the end of the stop start script.

RIVET field auto-save v1bBFR.fmp12