Script on leaving field

[MrEase]

I heard that Filemaker Developer lets you launch scripts on leaving a field. Is this true? Does this happen without an extra plugin?

[FileMakin' Tom]

Don't believe it is Hank. Unless 7.0 has that feaure now. But you can pause a script to find something, then, when resumed, branch it according to the results once the find is executed. Does the same thing.

 

Filemaker is not event oriented and as a result, such a feature requires a plugin at this time TTBOMK.

 

Tom

[fgx]

Si se puede. Necesitas un plugin que viene en el cd de Filemaker developer. Se llama FMExample y tiene varias funciones incluyendo la que tu buscas.

 

Si tienes una pregunta mi correo electronico es xiscoelizondo@yahoo.com

[Ted S]

I might be wrong on this but I think 'Developer' ships with a sample plugin that triggers scripts on field exit. I personally have not used it or even looked for it but from other discussions it I seem to remember this sample plugin being mentioned. I also remember that there was some limitations or gotchas so you should do some research if there even is such a plugin.

[CobaltSky]

[ QUOTE ]

...I think 'Developer' ships with a sample plugin that triggers scripts on field exit...there was some limitations or gotchas...

 

[/ QUOTE ]

Your memory serves you well, Ted. Yes there is a plug-in and yes, there are some gotchas.

 

The plug-in is called FMExample and resides in the /Plugin Examples/FMI/ directory of the Developer install pack.

 

The chief 'gotcha' is that this particular plug-in implementation, though free, does not provide a mechanism to pass a parameter through to the script which is triggered - which means that there is no way to have the script ensure that the record it runs on is the one it was triggered from.

 

For some applications this will not matter, but for most it will. For instance, if your purpose is to have a script update some related values, and if the user leaves the field by navigating to a different record, the script will update records related to the record the user has navigated to, not the ones that were related to the record on which a field was edited. This is but one example, but there are many others. Triggered scripts must fully manage context in order to reliably produce desired results - and to do that they require input data from the triggering event.

 

There are numerous third-party plug-ins which do provide the required capability and as I recollect, a couple of them are available as freeware.