FileMaker is awesome. Over 20 million units in 15 languages are in the hands of organizations through out the world. FileMaker is at home on iPad, iPhone, Windows, Mac and the web. Downloads of FileMaker Go have exceeded 1,000,000. If you have FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Pro Advanced their are 16 starter solutions professionally prepared for different segments of business and personal use.
Just getting started with FileMaker? One of the starter solutions may give you the start or inspiration for building your special solution. With a little or a lot of customization you can make one of them fit your needs. Going forward you can continue making changes that enhance the usefulness of you solution.
I want a reminder to make a call reminder to one of the contacts in the solution. In the future we will add enhancements to our next call date. Please note I have added a next call date and a next call note field outlined in red. Real basic stuff right? Lets take a look anyway.
Upon opening Manage Database for “Contacts” we add the fields (next_call_date and next_call_note) to the contacts table. I have placed the two new fields, highlighted in blue, using custom order and aligned to the top. Also please note the difference in naming conventions. You will need to pick a naming convention and stick with it. You can mix and match but your database may look a mess and other problems can creep in. That subject will be for another day.
After adding our new date field and new text fields they were placed on the Contacts Details layout. Room was made for them by shortening the notes field. One enhancement was added to the date field using the inspector. I also added the red outline using the inspector. The inspector is a excellent tool and becoming familiar with it can speed development enhancement to your solution.
The only enhancement I will note in this blog is the drop down calendar. Next time we will add scripts and script triggers that will make our “next call reminder” come alive
Figure 1.3 shows the set up for the date field:
- Drop down calendar
- Red outline with one point solid
- Corner radius 3 left square corners right
- Padding left & right 8, top 6, bottom 4
- Alignment center for vertical and horizontal
- Red outline with one point solid
- Corner radius 3 right square corners left
- Padding left & right 8, top 6, bottom 4
- Alignment top vertical and left horizontal
[clear ]
Figure 1.5
After entering browse mode I added a next call date along with a note. The addition of the date and note fields are not ready for prime time. The next blog will change and automate the new addition to our contacts solution.
– Bob
Bob Kelley
FileMaker 13/12 Certified Developer
The Scarpetta Group, Inc.
bob@scarpettagroup.com
