ISO FileMaker Magazine

Who doesn't want to know how long something takes? It's not like we, as the busy bees we are, have all the time in the world - right? Well, how about some convenient progress information.

One of the most common procedures within all of computing is to cycle or iterate over a set of something. In FileMaker, this comes in the form of records. A record loop is one of the most common things you'll ever do within FileMaker.

Setting a field value to something else across a range of records? You'll likely use a record loop. So, what's the easiest way show the progress of that record loop? It's currently a Card Window. In fact, when Card Windows first came out this was one of the first solutions I offered for said feature back in 2017. It's been a number of years since then and now we have better methods for handling multiple parameters.

So what better to do than give you a progress update about an update to the Card Window Progress Bars. How's that for progress? That's exactly what this week's video article is all about. How to implement a modern day progress bar for your standard FileMaker record loop.

One of the most wonderful things about FileMaker 16's release were Card Windows. While we've been able to create new windows for quite some time, the number of controls afforded those windows was limited. With card windows we can now present those windows within the main window. This provides for any other context than the current context.

You can show related records or completely unrelated records. The great thing about the card window is, like all windows, it can use any of the 3 possible views FileMaker provides. Need a list? Use List View. Need a form? Use Form View.

And, once the window is shown, it can present any number of records. In particular, it can show a related set of data which needs to be processed. The only thing missing is a progress bar to indicate the status of the processing of said records.

No problem, we'll just build the feature directly into our card window. That's what this video is all about. Using a card window in order to process a related set of records.