Anyone know FileMaker Pro

Arrgh!

[willybfriendly]

I have inherited a horribly designed application done up in FileMaker Pro 6.0 - a dastardly program if I have ever come across one.

I am attempting to redo the structure in a way that scales a little better for the user's needs, and to preserve the decade's worth of existing data.

Instead of structured queries we have these things called formulas and functions, and very poor documentation to go with them.

I want to SELECT 'value' FROM field.table WHERE field2.table = fieldX.table2 AND field3.table = fieldY.table2 AND field3.table = fieldZ.table2

I thought that the getField("table:field") function would work, but I get an error telling me I have a circular reference. It has been a long, frustrating day, but I don't see the circular reference, so I must not be understanding the function.

Anyone know FileMaker well enough to give me a hand?

WBF

[Mr Bo Jangles]

FileMaker is a superb program, and surely one of the most successful bits of software *ever* - you probably have a poor 'solution' made by someone.
For an outcome to your particular problem, and some assistance, I would recommend going to the main FileMaker web site, navigating to the section which lists the various E-mail Lists of users and developers, and signing up for a brief period and discussing your issues. Provided you modify your 'tone' (as expressed here) I would think you'll get all the assistance you can use.

[willybfriendly]

If one needs to sign onto a mail list to get such basic information for a commercial program, then the documentation is certainly less than stellar, don't you think?

On one of my many jaunts through G SERPs today I did come across a statement that FileMaker would be very frustrating to anyone familiar with Boolean logic and SQL. I can now attest to the accuracy of the statement.

Yes, this is certainly a bugared up mess created by someone that had little to no understanding of relational databases. No doubt about that. Most of the reports to be generated are annual. So, they set up a separate table for each year, which of course means that a new table and all of tis relationships and formulas/functions needs to be set up each year, pretty much from scratch. Further, there is virtualy no indexing in place.

So, I am in the process of converting to a more user friendly design.

Instead of:

table.year
widget
color
grade
value
amount

We will have:

table.widget
year
color
grade
value
amount

with the year indexed. Voila, one table good forever! (Of course, there are nearly a dozen similar tables set up:()

I know where I am, and I know where I am going. The roads between here and there are foggy, and neither the "User's Guide" or FM website offer much to illuminate the way. Was hoping someone hereabouts would have useful advice.

WBF