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Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 10 or later

Easy Sorting of List Views, part 1

Kevin Frank

Earlier this year, I posted a three-part series on Portal Sorting, and part 2 focused on dynamically sorting a portal when a column heading was clicked. Well, with just a few tweaks, this technique can be applied to dynamic sorting of found sets, and of course the most likely place to employ something like this would be on a list view.

I should note that on very large found sets, sorts using this technique can be noticeably slower than traditional “hard-coded” scripted sorts. (Performance is fine with normal found set sizes.) The benefit of using this technique, is that a new field can be added to a layout and sort-enabled in about 60 seconds without touching the script itself.

Continue reading “Easy Sorting of List Views, part 1” →

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 8 or later

Birthday Challenges, part 1

Kevin Frank

Dear FileMaker Hacks,

My personnel database has a scripted routine that locates all employees with birthdays in the current month, like so:

When I sent a copy of the database to our sister organization in Australia, the scripted routine did not function properly for them. Could it have something to do with their computer expecting D/M/Y rather than M/D/Y?

— Perplexed in Peoria

Continue reading “Birthday Challenges, part 1” →

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 9 or later

Conditional Invisibility, part 2

Kevin Frank

One of my favorite aspects of FileMaker Pro is reporting, and I appreciate it when a client poses a reporting challenge, because the phrase “we can’t do that” is not in my vocabulary (except when used as an example of a phrase not in my vocabulary). But recently I was given a reporting request that momentarily tempted me to utter those forbidden words.

Background: the client gives away prizes. Each prize falls into a “category”, and each category has one or more “types”.

The request: For a given date range, display and summarize prizes by category, and by type within that category, with each category starting on a fresh page… so far so good, right? The hierarchy is Prize Category → Prize Type, and FileMaker developers can crank out reports like that in their sleep.

But then came the twist: show different columns of information depending on category and type. And yes, the client wanted this all in a single report.

Continue reading “Conditional Invisibility, part 2” →

Level: Beginner, Version: FM 9 or later

Conditional Invisibility, part 1

Kevin Frank

I mentioned this technique in passing a few months ago (Portal Sorting, part 2), but today I would like to examine it in greater detail. Have you ever had a text object or a field that you wanted to selectively change based on some logical condition? For example, say you have a check box, and want the label next to the check box to change depending on whether the box is checked or not, like so:

In the old (pre-FileMaker 9) days, you could have used auto-enter or calculated field trickery, but now, thanks to the modern miracle of Conditional Formatting, you can make this happen at the layout level, rather than having to pollute your table schema.

Continue reading “Conditional Invisibility, part 1” →

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 8 or later

Magic Key, part 2

Kevin Frank

I ended yesterday’s article promising a couple improvements on the techniques showcased therein. To avoid unnecessary repetition I am going to assume you have read it.

The first improvement is to eliminate the highlighted steps in the “parse current field” script. Is it really possible to create a related record and populate multiple fields in that record using a single Set Field step?

Absolutely, and you can follow along in today’s demo file, magic-key-multipredicate-check-box-reporting, if you are so inclined. Continue reading “Magic Key, part 2” →

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 8 or later

Magic Key, part 1

Kevin Frank

Today we’re going to look at a technique called Magic Key, which allows you to flexibly create and populate related records. I believe that the name originates with European developer Ugo Di Luca, and we’ll get to the details in a moment, but first let’s look at a scenario where it might come in handy. Have you ever built or inherited a system with data stored in text fields formatted as check box sets?

There are pros and cons to this approach, and one of the cons is that data stored in this manner can be a pain to report on. But I have good news: Magic Key can help alleviate that pain Continue reading “Magic Key, part 1” →