Graph Management Techniques
When was the last time you opened the Relationship Graph and heard that little voice say “Wow, you’ve gotta clean this up!”? Maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was just a few moments ago.
Whenever the voices come, it’s a pretty easy task to accomplish when you apply some solid understanding to how the graph works and what it represents in the whole of your solution.
If code could write itself, then organization would never be necessary because no one would need to maintain or revise it. It would simply rewrite itself as needed. Sort of like how a tree grows. When a new branch is needed, it just starts to grow. Unfortunately, you’re the gardner of your own creations so you need to apply some forethought to what you create when working in the Relationship Graph.
In this video, I provide my own personal insights into how I approach the graph and what I think makes for an easier solution to maintain. When you consider how complex a FileMaker solution can quickly become, the notion of keeping things easy to work with should be a high priority.
Comments
naming conventions
Hi Matt,
There is one thing I find strange in your naming conventions. You start the names of the 'generic' tables, to be used in sql queries, with a '@'. So far I know, a @ as starting character of a table name is not allowed in sql, so it obliges us to quote the table name. Why not start it with another letter, or, for that matter, with the letters 'sql'? Makes it clear what the purpose of the table is, and works without a problem.
Kind regards,
Martin Spanjaard
Martin Spanjaard
It's always good to quote all SQL table and field names
As the title suggests, I quote all table and field names used within ExecuteSQL(). This is just good defensive coding. You never run the risk of name collision with a reserved SQL word.
The reasoning for starting with the @ symbol is because it causes all developer tables to sort at the top of the list and makes them stand out much more within code.
Of course, the @ can be replaced with anything else which will cause it to group together in the selection lists. I'm just not a fan of zzzzz.
-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor