Offscreen Tips & Tricks
FileMaker 12 introduced a totally new landscape for layout design. Along with the new way in which objects are represented, was the new way in which a layout was defined.
We now have this offscreen area of a layout. It's a convenient "storage area" of sorts. Where you can store "in progress" layout elements and documentation.
It doesn't stop there, however. You can include a lot of things which contribute to the actual logic of how your FileMaker solution functions. Take layout script triggers for example, or even portals themselves. When you leave a given layout, your portals reset and triggers may fire, which you may not want. So the best solution to this problem is to simply keep some things offscreen that would otherwise be onscreen.
This video shows you a variety of useful tips which take full advantage of the offscreen area of layouts. Looking to learn more about killer FileMaker development? This video won't disappoint!
Comments
overhang or not overhang
Hi Matt,
I have been using portals off screen for processes, but they are totally off to the right. I haven't encountered needing the overhang yet. Can you tell me when you need overhang and when you don't?
Thank you much,
LauraZ.
Multiple deletions I believe...
I recently had the need to delete multiple related records. Within the Theme Studio, I allow selecting multiple items from a sidebar and then hitting the delete key to remove the related records.
I believe, because of the Go To Object, Select Portal Row requirements, I needed the portal visible on the layout.
If you are only ever deleting one record, or you are only interacting with related data then you don't need the portal somewhere on the layout. If you do some kind of portal loop, then I'm pretty sure it needs to be visible for some script steps to work. At least this seems to be the issue I was hitting.
-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor
New Theme Studio
This new version of Theme Studio looks awesome! When will it be available?
Working as hard as I can.
I was shooting for the end of Jan 2015, but it may be mid Feb 2015.
Yes, it is proving to be very useful to myself as I can work directly with SVG icons and both convert and optimize within FileMaker without having to use a graphics program. Makes it VERY fast for doing UI work within FileMaker.
-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor
Halfway offscreen objects show in browse mode
Great tips and tricks, as usual.
If I place, say, a text object or portal offscreen, leaving only a few pixels in the live area, the whole object shows to the right of the live area. Any idea why it does’t work as in your examples? I’m using FM14.