FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual

Finding Records

FileMaker has three nearly identical script steps to handle the grunt work of finding records. You can let your user tell the script what to find, you can decide what the script finds (a hard-coded find), or you can script a dynamic find using calculations.

Deciding which one to use depends on whether your users know what they’re looking for—or how much work you want to save them. The upcoming sections go into this topic in detail. You’ll also see a find script in action, and learn how to make a script pause and wait for information.

Performing the User’s Find Requests

The first, Perform Find, is the equivalent of a visit to Find mode, followed by a click of the Requests → Perform Find menu command. Perform Find’s single option lets you specify what find requests to use, but, surprisingly, you can skip it entirely. If you don’t turn this option on, then Perform Find assumes you’re already in Find mode with one or more requests, and works just like the Requests → Perform Find menu command (and the Find button in the status area). It looks for records that match the already defined find requests. All the matching records become the new found set.

But where do those find requests come from? Either the user creates them, or your script does. For example, many developers like to add special “Find” layouts to their databases. These layouts can show just the right fields, along with helpful text, to make things easier for the user. Figure 14-9 shows a Find layout for the Customers ...