Custom Function Database - Part 9
Heading back into our series on the Custom Function database, there’s always an opportunity to explore yet another area of using FileMaker to create solid solutions. This video focuses on the fact that we’re storing canonical data which we want to leverage, yet not alter.
When you store data for any type of templating system or data which acts as the basis for further variations you have a number of choices in terms of how users interact with that data. For this solution we want the user to be able to easily modify the data but not the original data. Instead, giving the user their own copy allows them to keep the original and have their own custom modifications as well.
Watch this video if you’d like to learn more about using FileMaker’s validation options in order to facilitate controlled data duplication. That’s exactly what we’ve done in part 9 of the Custom Function database.
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Auto-Enter Examples - Stuff you need to know
One of the more comfortable concepts within FileMaker is the pervasive calculation dialog box. Once you're familiar, you find it everywhere. It can be used with fields and your database schema, and it's used within the processing and logic of your scripts.
When it comes to schema, and what your fields can do, the calculation dialog box is right there with its handy Auto-Enter options.
This powerful feature allows you to do all kinds of magic with fields. A field can determine what it should become or change into when other fields are changed. It can tie into your whole solution and make evaluations based on a myriad of various conditions.
There are certainly some fundamentals to know about Auto-Enter options and how they work. Every FileMaker developer should know these. Also, knowing just a few of the helpful functions can take you a long way in accomplishing your desired goals with FileMaker.
This video provides information about using auto-enter to manage record duplications when using a UUID.
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Automated Spell Checking
Spell checking seems like one of those subtle little afterthoughts. You either know you need it or it almost doesn't exist. But, of course, it's always there. This isn't how it used to be. It used to be that you had to check everything manually if you wanted to catch those typos.
With the OS picking up a bunch of the work in the last decade, pretty much any application can simply show which words are misspelled. This is the familiar red-dotted, or some other color, underline we now see when a word is misspelled.
While this particular feature, in FileMaker, can be turned on or off at both the field level and the file level, it doesn't cover all the new words and terms which inevitably show up as we move forward through time.
If you have any type of need which may benefit from the custom dictionary then watching this video will help provide some insight into making things work much more smoothly. At least when it comes to spell checking the content in your database fields.
With our work lives becoming a bit more distributed, this particular technique may be quite helpful to those with industry heavy specific jargon!
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