Events 4.04 review
DownloadEvents has the power to easily automate routine database activities.
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Events has the power to easily automate routine database activities. When you need something to be done, you can trust Events to complete it on time. It's the ultimate tool for your FileMaker arsenal.
Here are some key features of "Events":
FileMaker Pro 7 and 8 support - Events 4.0 has been completely redesigned to work with FileMaker Pro 7 and 8.
Triggers on record creation, view, entry, exit, or deletion - You can perform an action when a record is created, viewed, entered, exited, or even deleted.
Triggers on field exit (via validation formula) - Actions can be performed when you exit a field (i.e. by tabbing out or committing the record).
Triggers on layout entry - Actions can also be performed upon displaying a layout.
Triggers on field initialization - Actions can occur when an Auto-Enter Calculation is evaluated (which occurs on record creation, and can occur when referenced fields are updated).
Triggers on global drop-down list changes - FileMaker 7 and 8 allow a global field to be validated by a calculation. Thus, Events can trigger an action when a global field is changed, even when the global field is presented as a drop-down list.
Supports multiple tokens - Any number of separate pieces of information may be stored with an Event, for use by the triggered script. The script writer may separately request each such piece, easing development.
Sends Email and attachments - Now, with Events 4.0, in additon to triggering a script, an available action is sending an email message. Each message can also include any number of attachments (files) of any size.
Reliability - When you schedule an event, you can trust Events 4.0 to execute it when you need it to be done.
Triggers when a calculation field is calculated - Actions can occur any time a Calculation field's formula is evaluated. For a Stored Calculation field, this occurs when a record is created or a referenced field changes. For an Unstored Calculation field, this occurs when the field's value is needed (by another formula's evaluation or a layout's display).
Triggers at a specified time or recurringly - Many scheduling options exist. You can trigger an event at a specified date & time or even yearly, monthly (including "second Tuesday & third Wednesday!"), weekly, or daily. Of course, you may specify a relative time, i.e., a number of hours, minutes, and/or seconds from "now."
Allows events to be disabled - There is no need to delete an event to prevent it from running; the event can simply be temporarily disabled. Also, all events (of a specified type) may be temporarily "disallowed;" this is used when updating a set of fields in a script, where modification of the fields normally triggers events, to prevent such inappropriate "side-effects."
Opens files - The "OPENFILE" action allows you to open any local (or network) file, just as if you had "double-clicked" it (in Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder). This may be used to open another FileMaker database file via your operating system's filesystem (but not yet via FileMaker Server 7, nor via a computer which is acting as a FileMaker file server via FileMaker Network Sharing using TCP/IP).
Requirements:
FileMaker Pro 7 or later.
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