FileMaker® Pro Design & Scripting For Dummies®

Chapter 8. It's All in the Script!

In This Chapter

• Making FileMaker work for you

• Using logic in programming scripts

• Building a FileMaker script

• Shaking up scripts with variables

• Having fun with script programming

Lights! Cameras! Action! (I always wanted to say that.) Except for reality shows, just about every other show, movie, or play requires a script so that the actors have something to follow and know what to do. In a way, a movie script is a top-down program. You start at the top and work your way down ’til it's done. When you use FileMaker's script editor to create such a script, FileMaker is like your very own actor, and you can tell it to perform certain actions for you.

However, there is a significant difference between movie scripts and FileMaker scripts! With scripting in FileMaker, you can perform specific actions based on the results of prior actions, or the state of data.

During the script-writing process, the writer basically has to have the entire story in mind, or at least on some type of outline or storyboard. Writing scripts for FileMaker is very similar. You have to first know what it is that you want FileMaker to do. Then you write the script telling FileMaker to do it. A review of Chapter 4 is a good refresher for any new projects that you want to take on.

In this chapter, you can discover the magic of script programming in FileMaker. I walk you through several examples that illustrate how you can write your own scripts from start to finish. Although the topic of programming ...