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Re: "Active" Layouts

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On 2019-04-06 22:41:13 +0000, Charles H. Sampson said:

> Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 2018-12-01 19:47:48 +0000, Charles H. Sampson said:
>> 
>>> This is my latest request for a tutorial:
>>> 
>>> I want to have a layout whose fields vary depending on the value of a
>>> field. The "selector" field is represented by radio buttons. Each button
>>> choice triggers which fields in the record are to be displayed.
>>> 
>>> I have this poorly implemented at the moment. The implementation
>>> involves multiple copies of a layout, one copy for each button setting.
>>> There are also several scripts. Clicking on a button runs a script that,
>>> among other things, goes to the appropriate layout copy showing the
>>> desired fields.
>>> 
>>> This works, but it's terrible software engineering. A change to one
>>> layout must be made, identically, to the others. A change to one script
>>> requires consideration of unintentional side-effects on the other
>>> scripts.
>>> 
>>> There's got to be a better way, but my old Pogue book doesn't shed any
>>> light.
>>> 
>>> Charlie
>> 
>> That's how I've done it in the past with old version of FileMaker Pro
>> (and it can be highly annoying when a customer wants a "minor" change
>> to the Layout which in reality means changing multiple layouts).
>> 
>> BUT in newer versions it's very far easier.
>> 
>> 1.  In Layout Mode, select both the field AND it's fieldname label.
>> 
>> 2.  In the Inspector Panel click on the "Data" section (the drum-like icon).
>> 
>> 3.  The second sub-set of options is "Behavior". Click on the edit button
>> and you can insert a calculation for when the field is displayed.
>> 
>> For example, if you set MyAppearingField to use a Behavior calculation
>> of:
>> (MyField = "Fred")
>> 
>> then MyAppearingField (and its label) will only be displayed when
>> MyField contains the data "Fred" (without quote marks) - if MyField
>> contains any other data or is empty, then MyAppearingField will not be
>> displayed.
>> 
>> You may also want to tick the little box to use the same Behaviors when
>> the Layout is in Find Mode. That way users can only find data in
>> MyAppearingField when MyField has the data "Fred" entered.
> 
> Thanks, Harry.
> 
> The Christmas rush got to me and once I had gotten out of the habit of
> looking at USENET it was hard to get back.
> 
> This information was what I needed. One quibble: The behavior that one
> specifies is for when the field is hidden, not shown. That pales in
> comparison to the useful information you gave.

You're right. That should have said:
    MyField <> "Fred"
so that the field is displayed when the trigger field does contain "Fred".

Not sure now whether that was a mistake, a typo, or an auto-correction 
from the non-ASCII not-equal symbol.



> I also needed to place fields (and labels) on top of each other, only
> one showing at a time, of course. I could only do this using the
> position specification in the inspector.

Another possibility, if there's a limited number of options, is the 
"Tab Control" Layout item that is in newish version of FileMaker Pro. 
You can put all the 'normal' fields on the Layout, and then the 
data-specific ones in separate tab areas within the Tab Control (using 
the example, you could have one tab for "Fred" another tab for "Bert", 
etc.).



> One minor irritation is still left. Whenever I change the radio button,
> make the appropriate data changes, and attempt to leave the record, I
> get a dialog asking if I want to accept the changes before leaving the
> record. I'm pretty sure I can get rid of this by attaching a script that
> commits the record as I try to leave, but I haven't checked that out
> yet. (It's been a busy three months.)

I did a quick test file, but couldn't get it to display that message, 
so I'm not sure why (it may depend on what your Script is doing). I 
know the newish approach to not automatically saving data can be an 
anoyance in other functions though.


Helpful Harry  :o)

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Thread

"Active" Layouts csampson@inetworld.net (Charles H. Sampson) - 2018-12-01 11:47 -0800
  Re: "Active" Layouts Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2018-12-02 13:46 +1300
    Re: "Active" Layouts csampson@inetworld.net (Charles H. Sampson) - 2019-04-06 15:41 -0700
      Re: "Active" Layouts Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2019-04-07 14:04 +1200
        Re: "Active" Layouts csampson@inetworld.net (Charles H. Sampson) - 2019-07-10 16:54 -0700

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