Universal UI Strings
Claris/FileMaker, as a development environment, is full of all kinds of hidden corners and secret places. Most of this is due to its age and keeping a strong commitment to backwards compatibility. To its credit, there are very few features which have been removed to date. Still have a database which uses repeating fields to store data? They're still there!
To say that developing within the environment is straight forward is a bit misleading. Sometimes, you can combine knowledge about older features with newer ones and end up with something entirely new and cool. That's what happens in this video and technique file. By using JSON with one of those somewhat hidden features, we can solve an age old problem of having field specific information available to the whole solution - and we only need to manage it within one location, which happens to be specific to the field itself. It's one situation where having tightly coupled data is exactly what you're looking for!
In this video we'll take a look at how a well structured format like JSON can benefit us in a wide variety of ways. By addressing the need for supporting multi-lingual field labels, we are just touching the tip of the iceberg with this creative solution.
Comments
Value List and WD
Hey Matt, as always awesome content.
This could be a huge game changer in FileMaker development! However, it does NOT work in WebDirect? Can you please advise if there are technical limitations in implementing for WD? Or if there is a workaround to make this compliant?
You mentioned briefly other ideas like value lists. Am interested in a follow-up video using this technique for creating dynamic Value lists based on the field comment JSON. Other ideas, concepts and uses are highly welcome ;)
"Other ideas, concepts and uses"
I agree with "khanchi". I am intrigued as to how the value lists would work.
Another use case, for me,...
I'm working with a client that monitors "authorized operations" (generic term). One program calls them "permits", another uses the moniker "registration", still others use...accreditation, work order, certification, etc.
The UI needs to display correct description. Would this be a good use of this technique?
If X program => then display Y description.
Vyking Gold