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Register for the upcoming FileMaker Developer Conference and save $200. Join us from August 28 to September 1, 2005 in Phoenix, AZ and learn about FileMaker products, exhibit your FileMaker solutions, learn from the experts and get face-to-face support. Discover new tools and techniques to make you a more efficient and creative developer. "Early bird" registration expires June 30, 2005.
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FileMaker in the field: Customer success stories

Krispy Kreme treats itself to FileMaker Pro 7
Krispy Kreme’s L&L Enterprises cooks up a solution that keeps their 13 stores and staff organized and efficient. Learn how their upgrade to FileMaker Pro 7 has streamlined security, travel, payroll and bank reconciliations.

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On-hold programming powered by FileMaker Pro
Intellisound provides on-hold voice and music programming for over 800 customers. They rely heavily on their FileMaker Pro database to manage over 100 records per client, including tracking current and past client copy and specific instructions for every step of each client's individualized production process.

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FileMaker Pro 7 rolls the presses at Seattle Publishing
Seattle Publishing uses FileMaker Pro 7 as the basis for its Gutenburg Publishing System (R)to easily manages text, images and photos for the many catalogs, directories and reference guides it publishes.

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Rosa's corner

Get answers to your questions 24/7 with the new FileMaker knowledge base.
Did you know that you can get answers to thousands of questions with our new online knowledge base? We’ve spent the last couple of months overhauling our knowledge base to make sure you get fast and thorough answers to all your technical and product-related questions. And because it’s online, you can get answers to your questions 24/7—that means you’ll never have to wait on hold again! Best of all, it’s FREE! So the next time you have a technical or product question, be sure and check out our new online knowledge base. Learn about other Technical Support options on the FileMaker website.

Tips and tricks

Remove data from groups of fields
By Chris Moyer, The Moyer Group CEO & FileMaker Advisor technical editor, and Bob Bowers, Soliant Consulting CEO & FileMaker Advisor contributing editor

If you've ever wanted to create a new FileMaker Pro database by making a copy of an existing database, but don't want all that old data, this tip is for you.

First, if you're looking for a scripting solution to clear out the data in a large set of fields, you'll want a solution that doesn't require you to explicitly reference each field to be cleared out. The best way to do this is to use the Go to Next Field step to simply walk through all the fields on a layout, clearing them as you go.

Say you want to clear out FieldA, FieldB, and FieldC. Create a new Standard form layout and add just these fields to the layout. (You can also simply add all the fields, then remove the ones you don't need; that may be easier than selecting the ones you want.) Be sure not to alter or otherwise mess with the tab order on the layout. You can then use this script to cycle through and clear the fields:
Go to Next Field

Set Field [gTemp , Get (ActiveFieldName)] Loop
Clear [Select]
Go to Next Field
Exit Loop If [ Get (ActiveFieldName) = gTemp] End Loop
This script works fine in earlier versions of FileMaker. Just use Status (CurrentFieldName) in place of Get (ActiveFieldName).

Regardless of how many fields you have on the layout, this script simply jumps from field to field until it has completed a cycle of all the fields in the tab order. It "knows" when it's arrived back to the top because you store the first field's name in a global field at the top of the script.

Note there's no field name specified for the Clear step -- it simply operates on the currently active field.

The script above clears data from a single record. If you want to clear the data from your entire database, you could find all records and loop through them one-by-one, or you could use the Replace script step instead of Clear. Whatever method you use, you want to be sure you're the only user in the database when the script actually runs because record-locking conflicts can cause the script to halt or prevent data from being cleared.

There's another way you can approach this problem. Make a clone of the database, thus clearing out all your previous year's data. Then import just the pertinent data from the old file. The scripting solution is the way to go when you can't easily get physical access to the files to make a clone.