Show Message script Step

[Linda Dobinson]

Does anyone know of a way to populate the "message" portion of the show
message script step with data from a field? I've created a "customer
message" field that I want our staff to use for important customer
infomation. My script for creating a new record checks to see if their is
data in the customer message field - if there is, I would like it to display
that data in a message.

My work around for this in the past have been to have the script check for
data in teh customer message field. If data is found, bring the user to a
message layout that displays the customer message field. Then the user
presses "continue" and new record script continues. However, I prefer the
look of the 'Show Message" script step and would like to handle this
situation like that.

Does anyone have any ideas??

[John Weinshel]

Custom messages require plugins. You might try:
Dialog Plugin, or Power Dialogs, from Troi

http://www.troi.com/software/dialogplugin.html

or

DialogBox Plugin from Productive Computing (much simpler, but less power)
from
https://www.productive.cc/pcishop/html/FMPro?-DB=PCI_Products.FP5&-Format=ca
talog.htm&-Lay=CGI&Product_ID=3&-Find

(probably w lines of email address)

...or Filemaker's plugin search page:

"Linda Dobinson" <ldob...@cpinternet.com> wrote in message
news:ys5o8.120$yv4....@newsfeed.slurp.net...

[Bridget Eley]

If you want to do it without a plug-in, you can fake the Show Message dialog
box by making the script take you to a layout that is set up to look like
one. The script would also set global fields displayed on the layout to the
values you want the message to display. Use merge fields if you want to
integrate those values in the message text. Place global fields directly on
layout if you need users to input values.

For a slightly more elegant solution, the same technique can be extended to
incorporate a separate, special purpose, single record file which is scaled
down to the size of a dialog box and pops up over the existing layout when
the button is clicked.

For Mac users only, there is also easy to implement AppleScript solution
that allows you to show values from fields in dialog boxes and also to
accept values in fields within the dialog box. The solution can be totally
integrated into your FileMaker solutions via ScriptMaker. It was described
in an excellent article in issue 49 of FileMaker Magazine
(http://www.filemakermagazine.com) by Charles E. Ross called "Better Dialogs
Through AppleScript" which has detailed instructions and a technique file
you could study.

Even if you don't know applescript, you could try using
the Perform AppleScript step to play around with:

tell me

display dialog "(first part of message entered here) \"" & (cell "Input
Field" of the current record) & "\" (rest of message entered here)" default
answer "" buttons {" Cancel ", "Action 1", "Action 2"} with icon 0

set dialogResult to result

set (cell "gDialog Button" of the current record) to the button returned
of the dialogResult

set (cell "gDialog Text" of the current record) to the text returned of
the dialogResult

end tell

You will need to create the following fields:

Input Field (=text)
gDialog Button (= global text)
gDialog Text (= global text)

then just paste the script directly into the Perform Applescript Specify
Applescript dialog. Try it "as is" to see what it can do. Once you get the
hang of it, you can vary the message, the icons, the target fields and the
button labels. You can change the icons (0,1 or 2) for different kinds of
dialogues: hand stop signal, standard dialog, and exclamation point, in that
order.

Bridget Eley

in article ys5o8.120$yv4....@newsfeed.slurp.net, Linda Dobinson at
ldob...@cpinternet.com wrote on 3/27/02 7:09 am:

[Christoph Bouthillier]

Dear Linda:
There's also a dialogue plugin at www.24u.cz

--

Met vriendelijke groet / Mit freundlichen Gruessen / With kind regards
Christoph Bouthillier
post (at) no-no-spamtekstotaal.com
Please remove "no-no-spam" when E-mailing me directly - Thanks
------
"John Weinshel" <data...@centurytel.net> wrote in message
news:a7qp1a$2ms$1...@newsfeed.centurytel.net...

[Lucanus]

Hi Linda,

I have previously created a solution to this issue, allowing for custom alert
messages, including field contents...

What I did was the following:
1. Create a Global Container Field, with 2 Repetitions {g_MessageBox_Pic}
In the First Repetition, I placed a Picture of a Message Box
In the Second Repetition, I placed nothing
2. Create a Global Text Field {g_MessageBox_Text}
3. Create a Calculation (Container) Field {c_MessageBox_Display}
Make the equation:
If ["IsEmpty(g_MessageBox_Text),
GetRepetition(g_MessageBox_Pic, 2),
GetRepetition(g_MessageBox_Pic, 1)"]
4. On the Layouts where I wanted the MessageBox to appear, I created
placed two fields in the centre of the layout
A. c_MessageBox_Display, set to Maintain Proportions, and the
same size as the Picture in g_MessageBox_Pic
B. g_MessageBox_Text, with format text set to make it easily
visible against the Picture in g_MessageBox_Pic, and placed

on top of the c_MessageBox_Display field, where I wanted
the text to appear, and with the Allow Data Entry option
set to
OFF
5. I then added two steps to each of the Scripts which I wanted to use
this Message Box
Firstly, the SetField ["g_MessageBox_Text"; "Customer Message"]
Then after the Message Box is no longer required,
SetField [g_MessageBox_Text"; ""]

The end result is a Message Box with the following features:
i. The Message Text can be dynamically changed by a Script
(rather than having 101 different Show Message actions)
ii. The Message Text can be made up of Field Values
(e.g. "Status(CurrentFoundCount) & " records found")
iii. Temporary Message Boxes
(e.g. "Please Wait, Processing", which is removed on
Script completion)

If I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks
Luke