Silicon Wasteland - Creating a Database in FileMaker Pro

Creating a Database in FileMaker Pro: Visual QuickProject (Peachpit Press, 2005)

As promised in Creating a Database in FileMaker Pro: Visual QuickProject, you can download the graphics needed for the Mileage Master database from this page. The image files are compressed into separate Mac and Windows archives. Click the appropriate link to download the archive to your computer. When saving the archive, select an easy-to-find disk location, such as the Desktop.

Windows archive

MileageMaster.zip

Macintosh archive

MileageMaster.sit

To extract the files from the archive, click (or double-click) the icon of the downloaded file. You will be allowed to choose a location in which to store the extracted files. As you did with the download, select an easy-to-find disk location, such as the Desktop. The archive will appear as a new folder named Mileage Graphics. Inside the folder, you'll find blankform.tif (the trip log graphic for Chapter 5) and the Data Entry Icons folder (containing the buttons for the Data Entry Form in Chapter 8).

If your computer doesn't have a compatible extraction program and can't open the archive, you can download the necessary program from one of these Web sites:

WinZip (Windows)

www.winzip.com/downwzeval.htm [21-day trial version]

StuffIt Expander (Mac)

www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/index.html [free version]

Errata

Download the Update to FileMaker Pro 7v3 [CRITICAL]

Several readers recently stated that they were unable to complete the instructions on page 20 (defining several Calculation fields as global). Because the "Use global storage..." check box could not be checked, it wasn't possible to correctly define those fields.

After some research, I discovered that these readers were unfortunately experiencing a bug that was present only in the initial releases of FileMaker Pro 7. FileMaker Inc. has since issued several free updates/patches. The latest (7v3) lists the following as one of the problems corrected, which is the specific problem the readers encountered:

1.5.7. It is now possible to turn on the “Global Storage” option for a calculation field that references a global field.

Thus, in order to follow the steps in the book, you must download the latest free update from http://www.filemaker.com/support/updaters.html. I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused some of you.

Page

Error

3

Formula above screen shot should read: "Purchase Price / Catalog Value"

105

At the end of the first paragraph, change "Purpose" to "Business Purpose"

108

Step 5: Change text to "Perform without dialog;" change the page reference to 72

119

Make a startup script, 9th line: change "value" to "values"

124

Step 5, first line: change "Business Purposes" to "Business Purpose"

140

Remove the period before ".shutdown scripts, 113"

Page	Error
3	Formula above screen shot should read: "Purchase Price / Catalog Value"
105	At the end of the first paragraph, change "Purpose" to "Business Purpose"
108	Step 5: Change text to "Perform without dialog;" change the page reference to 72
119	Make a startup script, 9th line: change "value" to "values"
124	Step 5, first line: change "Business Purposes" to "Business Purpose"
140	Remove the period before ".shutdown scripts, 113"