As we remember, it was more than ten years ago anything new happened to FileMakers feature Value lists. If you look at FileMaker 11, released 2010, it is the same feature set as today in FileMaker 19. In FileMaker 5, released 1999, related data was introduced. It is more than 20 years ago! In most circumstances FileMakers included value lists work well, but there is some limitations.
Four years ago I did a blog post, and a presentation at .fmp[x]Berlin 2017, about a solution I developed to solve some limitations of the FileMaker value list feature. It was a solution consisting of some scripts and layouts and was deployed in a database once and then reused over and over to all value lists, instead of or in combination with, the built in value list feature. Even if it was pretty quick to implement it was a bit tricky at first glance.
Add-on
Today we are releasing the solution as an add-on much easier to install/use and with some of the features in my wish list from the previous blog post as new features. We publish it for free on Claris Marketplace. To start using it simply scroll down and click on the download link. Unpack the zip and read the readme file if your are not familiar using add-ons.
Features
- Sort values by a third field
- Group values by a third field
- Handles unindexed data
- Just as quick as native value list to implement
- Easy to filter list using FileMaker search logic
- Works like a native value list with keyboard input
- Change design quickly in one place
- Easy to change settings with a corresponding settings button
- Show images in the list
New features in this version:
- Show limited value list based on field data
- Show limited value list based on hardcoded value
- Hide ID field and only show list value
- WebDirect support
- Move to next field or not
- Display above field if close to the bottom of the screen
- Support for fields in portals
- Present value list above non field objects such as buttons
The features I want to implement in the future:
- Show checkbox instead of highlighting the value with colour
- Five recent values on top. Last chosen values saved in a table (thank you Peter Kraaijeveld)
- Five recent values on top per session/user
- Specify list height in rows
- Animated display in Go
- Handle different languages
- Option to enable more info with tooltip when hovering a value in the list
- Option to cache the list to handle many values
- Make it possible to add new data to the list while opened
- More..? Any ideas? Make your own changes!
Download add-on here: FlexibleValueLists.zip (requires FileMaker Pro 19, new version added 2021-06-15 12.10 because of a bug regarding add-on creation and language)