Database Reference
In-Depth Information
gress bar already gives you. That way, the web viewer can use all its space on the layout for
web page content.
Automatically Encode URL
The fancy term for a web address is uniform resource locator or URL. The “Automatically
encode URLs” checkbox is FileMaker's effort to shield you from the rules about which char-
acters can and can't be included in a URL. The following URL contains three verboten char-
acters:
http://crookedarm.com/an\oddly|named%page.html
. Attempt to load that page
in a Web Viewer with automatic encoding disabled, and it simply won't work. The page will
never load. Switch that encoding checkbox on, however, and FileMaker finds those problem
characters and replaces them with their encoded counterparts. The resulting URL,
ht-
tp://crookedarm.com/an%5Coddly%7Cnamed%25page.html
, loads as if nothing were ever
wrong.
Conditional Formatting
Sometimes you want the formatting (color, font, style, and so forth) of a layout object to
change depending on certain criteria. For example, you might want the Status field to change
color depending on its value, turning red if the person is deceased. That way you easily spot
this fact whenever you look at the record.
FileMaker's conditional formatting feature lets you make database objects change when,
well, conditions change. It works by letting you specify a series of criteria and the specific
formatting changes that go along with them. FileMaker means
condition
in the “I'll give you
a hand on one condition…” sense. As long as certain restrictions are met, the formatting ap-
plies.
Conditional Formatting of Fields
You can apply conditional formatting to any text object, button, field, or web viewer. Follow
these steps to make your status field more dynamic:
1.
On the List layout, select the Status field and then choose Format
→
Conditional
.
You see the Conditional Formatting dialog box pictured in
Figure 15-12
.
2.
Click Add
.
A new condition appears in the list at the top of the window. Also, the dialog box's
Condition and Format sections become active (they were grayed out until now).
3.
From the first pop-up menu under Condition, make sure “Value is” is chosen
.
