FileMaker Tip from Andrew Persons
I run into this situation very frequently, as I'm sure most developers do: I have a record, such as a contact, that is related to a company record via the serial ID. I want to display the company name, so I just place the company name field via the relationship. Pretty standard so far.
But I relate to that contact record in many different places in the relationship graph. I don't want to have to attach a new Company TO to the contact record for every occurrence, so I create a CompanyName unstored calc in the contact table that references the company name through the relationship. That's how I've done it before, that is. Starting in 8.0, FileMaker introduced a feature of pop-up menus (not drop-down lists). Create a new value list in the Company table. Set the first field to the serial ID, and the second field to the company name. Then check the "Show values only from second field" box. Now, any field with that value list attached will display the company name that matches the serial ID in the field, if one exists. Here's the cool thing: this works even if the field isn't enterable. So, you can use this to leverage the contact-company relationship anywhere you want, without cluttering up the RG. And, it has good performance across many records, unlike the unstored calc.Labels: Andrew Persons, Excelisys, Filemaker pro, Tips
FileMaker Inc. today introduced an interesting new product called
Bento. Here at Excelisys we are always looking into to new technology that may help our clients as well as our company. Over the next few months while still in beta we will be evaluating the program from top to bottom. Our internal stafflist was lit up today with
Bento talk. In the mean time check out
this story from Wired.com for the scoop. I will post other links if they add value later.
UPDATE Here is a nice look at Bento from
AppleInsiderLabels: Apple, bento, database, Filemaker, Filemaker pro
Sure
Leopard is great, but it is no good if you can't use FileMaker. Grab the
updater to help with Leopard compatibility.
Labels: Filemaker pro