Month: January 2015

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 13 or later

Summary List As Relational Predicate, part 1

Kevin Frank

Disclaimer: This article features an undocumented technique. As with all material on this site, use at your own risk and test thoroughly.

One of my favorite features introduced in FM 13 is the summary list field type, which allows developers to easily access a list of field values for records in a found set.

1-31-2015 8-07-11 AM

The idea of using a summary list (indirectly, via a “helper field”) as a relational predicate is not new, and we explored it here on FileMaker Hacks last year:

Continue reading “Summary List As Relational Predicate, part 1” →

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 12 or later

Non-Breaking Reporting Groups

Kevin Frank

Today we’re going to look at a reporting challenge that comes up from time to time, and a technique that can be useful to have in your developer bag of tricks.

In the demo file, Non-Breaking-Groups, we have a simple personnel file containing employees spread across all 50 U.S. states, with between two and nine employees per state.

1-20-2015 8-45-43 PM

We have a requirement to produce a report showing personnel grouped by state, like so:

1-20-2015 4-16-27 PM

Continue reading “Non-Breaking Reporting Groups” →