Display song info heres how we arrange to return

display Song info
Here’s how we arrange to return easily to the Album layout whence we came
16
Note that we’ve had to use
a global field because we
need to save a value from
this script and make it
available in another
(namely ReturnToAlbum).
T
Returning to the Correct Layout

FileMaker Scripting CS 200 Winter 2019
“Print Statements”
•
the Show Message script step
•
the Beep script step
•
create a global text field M on a visible layout
& use Set Field to write msgs / values into M
both append and replace are supported
eg in the Marks Demo’s Choose layout
“Breakpoints”
•
the Pause/Resume Script script step
•
the Show Message script step
•
the Show Custom Dialog step
•
or use FileMaker Pro Advanced
17
Debugging Techniques in FileMaker

FileMaker Scripting CS 200 Winter 2019
Similarities
•
you can automate most manual manipulations
•
you can attach scripts to buttons & put them in a menu
•
so you can extend both applications
Differences
•
in FM recording is non-existent
•
in FM editing is very constrained
is this good or bad?
•
in FM you can pass parameters explicitly to user-defined scripts
but the mechanism is clumsy
see online help for the Get(ScriptParameter), Let(...) and Evaluate(...) functions
if you’re interested
•
Only FileMaker Pro Advanced has a step-by-step debugger like Excel’s
•
Excel has a larger set of script steps & functions
18
FileMaker’s Scripting As Compared to Excel’s

FileMaker Scripting CS 200 Winter 2019
Network access
Field- or record-locking
•
prevent simultaneous modification by two users
Transaction support
•
several steps treated as an “atomic action”
•
eg: – $1000 from this account, + $1000 into that account
•
— all are executed (or not) as if a single step
Large amounts of data
•
eg gigabytes (billions) or terabytes (trillions)
19
Other Important DBMS Features
(Not relevant to this week’s assignment)

FileMaker Scripting CS 200 Winter 2019
It’s boring (and often overwhelming) to “sit down and learn a new application”
So a good strategy is to
•
find a project you need to do for some (unrelated) reason,
•
for which you can use the app (or feature) you want to learn,
•
that’s of suitable size and
•
for which you can allocate a bit of extra time.
It helps if the project is small, so you can accomplish it quickly, before losing interest
or enthusiasm
(This is how many of the CS 200 lab exams get set J .)
20
The Project Pearl