Using the Calendar in Claris FileMaker - FileMaker Add-ons

[@CraigMiller-f1w]

Thanks for this and your other add-on videos. I've been working with the calendar addon a bit now but just realized that the spanning of muti-day events seems to be limited to 30 days. Is there a way to modify this? We have several events (registration periods, etc.) that are longer than 30 days. But any event where the start and end dates are more than a month apart don't even show on the calendar.

[@ProductiveComputing]

Hi there, It looks as though the displaying of a 30+ day event is currently beyond the ability of the standard Calendar Add-on at this time; events must be scheduled with a date range of 30 days or less. You might have success if you split the events into multiple sections, perhaps on a per-week (7 day) basis or per-month (30 day) basis. However, you would then need to create each section as its own individual Event source record, which would add to the overhead of your particular solution; for example, if you have an event that is supposed to last 60 days, you could split it into two 30-day events instead, as “((event)) First Half” and “((event)) Second Half”, or something to that effect. Hope this helps! Thanks for your feedback and for watching!

[@RKArchitects]

I love your videos - thank you for taking the time to make them.

[@ProductiveComputing]

Thank you @Richard Knight! - We like making them too. Time is not always on our side, but we do our best. We're also knee-deep in making lots more professional training videos for the industry with a specific focus on Claris Pro from A to Z along with covering all the new stuff just released officially on Sept 8th (Claris Platform Bundle). Stay tuned and thanks for watching!

[@rawdonut]

I’ve downloaded a calendar that would let you change the hours shown on a day. That was in a json layout. I do t see a json layout here. For example, we’re open for business from 5:30am to 2pm and our employees couldn’t accidentally add a time such as 3pm. I would like to stop any mistakes from happening. But again, don’t see where to change the time.

[@ProductiveComputing]

Hello @rawdonut You are correct. The built-in calendar add-on doesn't expose the daytime hours in a preference that's readily available to a developer and/or user. That code is buried within a table called "FCCalendarAddon" and in the field called: "HTML" which is a combination of HTML and JavaScript in non human-readiable (minified) format. *Here are some possible options for you:* 1) If you want to use the Claris Add-on, you can protect the employees from making mistakes by validating the dates/times when they are doing their data entry for a given day. 2) You could bundle your own JavaScript calendar found at fullcalendar.io/ (this is a highly technical endeavor) 3) There are others in the industry that supply calendar bolt-ons and starter kits in the Claris Community, such as Richard Carlton Consulting and Seed Code. 4) You could also check out our free "Core CRM Pro" product which uses the same fullcalendar.io engine but also exposes more of the code in a more accessible way here: www.productivecomputinguniversity.com/courses/Core_CRM_Pro

[@Vkvkcy]

Thank you so much and the presentation was great. But there is something you said which I don't understand. You said not to use the sample data table for the final solution. And to delete it if possible. So then do I create a brand new table to replace the sample table?Does this means that I have to get into the code and change the table names relating to the sample table? I really don't get it? Hope you can elaborate. Thanks.

[@ProductiveComputing]

@Vkvkcy Hello and sorry for the delay here on this response. So, with any add-on, removing it is just as easy to do as installing it. The video warns that if you plan to use the sample data table that comes with the add-on as the new home for your events when working with the calendar, be careful not to uninstall the add-on later because doing so will remove all tables, layouts, scripts and more that were added when the add-on was first installed. Also when uninstalling an add-on, it will optionally remove data from the sample events area as well. This will especially be important if you used the sample data table for your production data I think the key here is that if you've installed an add-on and use it within your production environment permanently, then don't uninstall it. If you want to disconnect an add-on so that you can and install it without removing anything from your system, you'll need to duplicate/copy the schema it created. Once you copy the schema, all the functionality goes out the window unless you rewire it. In some cases (like for sample data for the calendar), rewiring it is easy and part of the add-on configurator. In other cases, copying the schema might mean rewiring it under the hood which can be overwhelmingly complex especially if you're new to all this. We hope this helps clarify these points. Great question!

[@spidey5324]

I have Filemaker 19 and have a calendar on the layout. My question is I don't want to have events on the calendar. Instead, I want to display orders and some of the information. Is there a way to do it? Thanks.

[@ProductiveComputing]

Hello @Spidey Congratulations! You inspired us to create a video to answer your question! Here you'll see the exact steps to use the Calendar Add-on with an eye towards doing it on a sample work orders system. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZSbap-HoNWXipo

[@RobertoDemo]

Hi, thanks for your tutorial! Unfortunately I'm finding some issues configurating the Calendar on my Computer. I'm using a MacBook Air (M1 2020) with Big Sure (11.6) and FileMaker Pro 19.4.2.204 ... Do you know if there are any compatibility troubles? I'm having some problems with Kanban as well and also configurating graphically a layout ... So strange... Thanks for helping me. Roberto

[@ProductiveComputing]

Hi @Roberto Demo - sorry for the delay on this reply here. Did you already resolve this issue at this point? If you are experiencing graphical strangeness, you could try clearing the cache: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6qlXqSlgruHnJI (it's a long-shot but sometimes the cache issue fixes a lot of FileMaker strangeness). We have just now have tested this with the M1 MacBook Air (2020) and it works great on this end in every scenario we throw at it. *Here are a couple more pro tips for you while we're on the topic:* 1) When you first drag the Kanban add-on over to the layout, the layout will NOT be wide enough. You'll need to make the layout wider (left to right) in order to fit the board. If you don't do this, you'll have graphic strangeness. You can also reduce the size of the Kanban object as well to fit the layout which will also resolve the issue. 2) If you are creating a brand-new FileMaker file, you don't want to name that file with the same name as the add-on you are using/testing. This could also introduce some strange/broken behavior. In other words, don't name your FileMaker file "Calendar" if you plan on using a Calendar Add-on. Best of luck with your development. - PCI Team

[@upstatesc6374]

I am getting an error indicating that that a value in the range from '0' to '1' is required when selecting the All Day or Editable checkbox in the Event layout. Any suggestionss greatly appreciated. Learning FM on the fly. Fantastic video though.

[@ProductiveComputing]

Hello @Upstate SC Thanks for your question here. At this point you may find it best (and quicker) to pose that same question to the Claris Community Forum at this point. You can find it here: community.claris.com/en/s/ Thanks for watching and best of luck on your FileMaker journey!

[@clothbymedina4217]

I had a problem with a calendar add-on. it works in a development stage once I save the database into a Clone new database the calendar does not appear anymore. it shows only a blank layout with no data. can you please let me how can I bring back the calendar ..? thank you for your help

[@ProductiveComputing]

Thank you for your feedback! It sounds like when you ran the “Save as Clone”, not only did FileMaker clear out the data of the main tables of your solution, but also the record data that serves as an “engine” for the Calendar Add-on. Our best recommendation would be to use the Import Records menu command to import the single record from the “FCCalendarAddon” table from the development copy of your solution into the fresh-made clone of your solution. That will ensure that the ‘engine’ that is programmed into that single record will be carried over properly, and that should allow you to see and utilize your calendar on the fresh clone once again. Let us know how it works out! Thanks!

[@SubZeroSpecialists]

Thank you for taking the time to explain the install. I see that on your video there are colors assigned to each event, how can I assign colors to a particular event? Is there a color chart available? Thanks again.

[@ProductiveComputing]

The colors can be set in the ''Event' window that appears when you click an event. Set the color in the 'Styles' field at the bottom.

[@SubZeroSpecialists]

@@ProductiveComputing I guess what I’m asking is are there more colors or a color chart I can import and can a color be assigned to each user instead of events.

[@homebasesoftware9077]

I notice that the Configurator buttons are set to hide if the user doesn't have full access, so moving them to another layout may not be necessary. Case ( Get ( AccountPrivilegeSetName ) ≠ "[Full Access]" ; 1; Get ( Device ) = 3 ; 1; Get ( Device ) = 4 ; 1; Get ( Device ) = 5 ; 1; )

[@ProductiveComputing]

That is a good point, the configurator button is only visible to users with full access on a desktop client. If a developer finds that the configurator button's size or location doesn't work for their layout they can call the script anyway they like, so long as it includes the script parameter from the provided configurator button.

[@markappleby8791]

Great video, do you know could we set this up to manage resources on a day. I like to build consultations for many salespeople at the same time.

[@ProductiveComputing]

Hello @Mark Appleby, thanks for your comment. So, there are not many ways with the built-in add-on to distinguish one type of event from the other. The only thing we have out of the box is "style," which also has the benefit of being a different color/style for each type of event. So here are a couple of simple ways to incorporate multiple salespeople: 1) You can define your style as a salesperson. That way, each salesperson would be in their own color, and you can separate the events that way. That's a built-in feature and requires no additional programming. 2) You could create a new salesperson field and then filter on that using the built-in filter option. However, this alone won't allow you to easily see one salesperson from another when the filter is not in use unless you also do #3 below. 3) You can prefix each event title with the initials of the salesperson and have that calculated as part of the event name. This would only require an adjustment to the event field. Although not ideal, it requires minimal programming and allows you to see multiple salespeople on the calendar at once, each with their own initials in the event name. 4) You could set up a unique layout for each salesperson. On each layout, you create a separate Add-on, which will be assigned to a separate table. Yes, that's is also not ideal from an architecture standpoint, but it's an option. Then you would simply navigate to the correct salesperson's layout when it's time to view their calendar. Depending on the number of salespeople we're talking about, this could be a feasible workaround and has some advantages, especially if, ideally you didn't want to co-mingle the salespeople's events on a single calendar. If your hope is to co-mingle the events across all salespeople with the option to only view one salesperson at a time, you would need to do 2 and 3 above, with #1 also being an option for you. Anything more elaborate would require some heavy lifting, and it might not be doable based on how the add-on works. The main mechanism and JavaScript magic of the calendar presents itself in a non-usable format for the human. In a case where you need fancy things beyond what the add-on can do out of the box, we're recommending people roll their own integrated calendar and incorporate fullcalendar.io into a web viewer so that they have more flexibility over a lot more options. However, doing this is no small task and requires an understanding of JavaScript and the skills to connect JavasScript with Claris Pro/FileMaker. Depending on your needs, we could potentially help with this if your organization had a budget to accomplish it. A simple request to [e-mail] can get you started, and we'd be happy to see what that would look like.

[@princesscheesehand]

Excellent video! Do you know if it would be possible to have either multiple filters or to at least dynamically change which field is being filtered based on a script? ie. if I have a search bar for field a and field b, it will change the filter field based on which has triggered the script. Thank you very much!

[@ProductiveComputing]

You could populate the query field with your own scripts before refreshing the calendar. Field A could trigger Script A to set a configured query field to the value of Field A and then perform the 'FCCalendar Refresh' script. In either case, it is advised to always reference add-on scripts by their names and to use your own tables for data. This will save you effort if you choose to upgrade the add-on later. Perform Script [ Specified: By name ; "FCCalendar Refresh" ; Parameter: "ENTER UUID VALUE HERE" ] I hope this helps, thanks for watching.

[@Shuaigede]

Very nice, is it possible to change the date and time formats?

[@ProductiveComputing]

The Event Entry form you see when you click on an event is a FileMaker layout and the dates and times can be formatted as usual using the Data formatting section of the Data tab of the Inspector pane. (Bottom right side in layout mode.). That layout is nested in folders FCCalendar Addon > FCCalendar Sample Tables And Layouts > Event Display and you need to be in layout mode to navigate to it. Note: This layout is linked to the add-on and changes will be lost, without an option to preserve it, if you uninstall the add-on. As for the Date and Time formatting displayed within the calendar itself (the WebViewer,) it will use the formatting of the operating system's language & region settings. On a Macintosh, this includes 10 different regions for English and is located at Apple icon > System Preferences > Language & Region. I don't have the exact settings for the PC at the moment, but it should be similar.

[@andreavillano5007]

Is it possible to limit the calendar to a single week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) without day, month and year? Thanks

[@ProductiveComputing]

You could set it to display as a week and then then remove the navigation to different views. Go to ‘Configurator > Other Settings’ and set the ‘Default View’ to ‘Week.’ Next, delete or hide the ‘Day/Week/Month’ button bar. Using a calculation to hide the individual buttons in the bar could make them visible under select conditions.

[@andreavillano5007]

Thank you for your suggestion. This is a possible solution for my database. However I would like to choose the day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc) instead of the date. Thank you again

Great video! Thank's!

[@ProductiveComputing]

Thanks for watching -- and for the positive feedback! Have a great weekend!

[@suelescottrellcottrell681]

Great video having trouble with the query control, any chance of going into more detail, have run the video loads of time but cant get it to work.

[@ProductiveComputing]

To run the ‘FCCalendar Refresh’ script you need only provide the UUID of the instance of the add-on. Enter only the value in the script parameter, nothing else. That value is located to the right of ‘AddonUUID =‘ in the calendar WebViewer or any of the buttons. Additionally, ensure that you have clicked or tabbed out of the field before pressing the button. Using a Script Trigger on exit to run the script can avoid this scenario. I hope this helps. Thanks for watching.

[@suelescottrellcottrell681]

Having a brain melt down have tried putting the UUID into the Script (FCC refresh)to no avail. not sure which section to put the uuid into . any chance of a screen shot. many thanks.

[@ProductiveComputing]

@@suelescottrellcottrell681 Click this link and pause the video for a screenshot. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hH-XpopmbtFjm9k Enter the UUID value in the 'Optional Script Parameter" section of the 'Button Bar Setup' window. I hope this helps.

[@lizhexu7718]

Thank you very much for the information. I followed the instruction and added the plug-in into one solution on Windows server 2016. It works fine when accessing on Mac. But on Window, it won't display the Calendar for the same user account. I checked the MS Edge and the JS is enabled. I don't know how to solve the issue. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[@ProductiveComputing]

Hello @Lizhe Xu I just tried making a new file using the calendar add-on with Windows Server 2016 using FileMaker 19.2.1.14 and it seems to work as expected. Using the latest version of FileMaker 19?

[@Me_ThatsWho]

nice job, Paul...because there is no upgrade path (yet), you are suggesting that just renaming the SampleData table should be safe enough (for future upgrades) ?

[@siberiatrust6190]

Thanks Paul - please clarify if one has to copy & paste the file or whether renaming would be adequate

[@ProductiveComputing]

Great question. Renaming will NOT prevent it from being removed when uninstalling. There is an option to leave tables, fields, and record data when uninstalling, but this comes with additional issues. The most important advice is to ensure you have a backup before installing or uninstalling an add-on in a solution. This video chapter on uninstalling add-ons may provide more details: kzbin.info/www/bejne/noWZaYxmbph5l7M For a more in-depth look at add-ons, in general, have a look at our video 'Fundamentals for using FileMaker JavaScript Add-ons:' kzbin.info/www/bejne/noWZaYxmbph5l7M Thanks for watching, let us know if there are more questions along the way.

[@FedericoChieli]

Hi and thank you for this, it got me started using the calendar in my own solution! Any way to create a script and button to have the calendar going to a certain month and year without having to click previous and next several times? THX!

[@ProductiveComputing]

As much as we'd like to dig in and help with this, it goes beyond what we're able to do via a comment on KZbin. Here's a potential clue to get you started. Inspect the field FCCalendarAddon::CurrentState.

[@jimkent66]

Other than screenshotting. Is there an easy way to print these Calendar Add-ons?

[@ProductiveComputing]

Hi Jim, FileMaker cannot natively display all of the web viewer content when trying to print out, whether to print to paper or to a PDF. There are some other solutions available that make use of plug-ins or API calls that can take a static image of the web viewer, or you can take a screenshot and load that into a container field to display/print on a dedicated layout. These are the other solutions we found: www.seedcode.com/printing-web-viewers-filemaker-16/ www.teamdf.com/blogs/print-capture-web-viewers/

[@h.e.hazelhorst9838]

Hi, thanks for the excellent video! You commented somewhere, that you change the date formats on the Calendar itself (webviewer). How can I change the strings within the code itself? I want to be able to change the locale irrespective of the OS settings...

[@ProductiveComputing]

Hello @H.E. Hazelhorst very happy you liked the video! So, we don't have intimate knowledge of all the inner workings of the calendar to answer this with 100% confidence. With that said, I believe for the kind of editing you are talking about, you'll likely find that in the HTML code itself (located in a field in the table called: "FCCalendarAddon") which is not really "editable" in a practical way. The HTML is where the chromosomes of the calendar are stored and it's nearly 1 million characters or 17,387 words. I believe the add-on is founded about this: fullcalendar.io/ and perhaps that's another way to tackle this issue. You can find the documentation for the calendar itself here: fullcalendar.io/docs. However, the add-on is a custom integration/interpretation of the original code and they only abstracted selected elements of the calendar to be user-definable within the add-on. For anything that is not on listed under the configuration icon, it's going to take some serious "rolling up of the sleeves" to get your head around it. That's why I say it't not practical perhaps. For the nitty gritty details, it's all hard-coded in the HTML which is likely the base code the used for the calendar construct. I guess that's the give and take of having the very slick technology (a modern day calendar) that is a drag and drop on a FileMaker layout balanced with the fact that in order to pull this off, it's 1 million characters of actual code - most of which is not accessible in a practical way. Hope that helps begin to shed some light on this particular situation! Great question by the way... 👍

[@h.e.hazelhorst9838]

@@ProductiveComputing Hi Thank you for reacting. I delved into this matter (how to get a Dutch, or French or Finnish or whatever version of the Calendar while using a System / FileMaker with a different locale) and it turns out to be quite simple: - in Layout mode, check the WebViewer that displays the Calendar; - the data:url shows the setting of the 'initialProps'. - one of the lines populates the Meta.Application/Language, by retrieving the Get ( ApplecationLanguage). - change this to the language of choice and you're set! Like so: ["Meta.Application.Language" ; "French" ; JSONString]

[@ProductiveComputing]

Wonderful that it turned out to be this easy! This will be very helpful for those who need similar functionality. Your input and findings are much appreciated here. Thank you! 👍🏼

[@axelisraelwall6898]

Thank you for your video, it was interesting and helpful. I recently added the calendar to my database and is an excellent tool. The only problem I have is that when I try to change the color of each event on the calendar, by using the style drop-down list, it doesn't change color (only grey), do you know what might happen or how to fix this problem? By the way, is there a way to contact you guys?

[@ProductiveComputing]

@Alex Israel Wall Glad it was helpful! Are you using Mac or Windows? We're not able to replicate this scenario with the colors on our end. Be sure to use the version latest version of FileMaker available and if you did try this on Windows, try on a Mac if you can or start a brand new file. There have been reports with some slightly different behavior issues with Windows as it relates to add-ons which we believe Claris is aware of. So, to contact us, you can send an email to [e-mail] you can call us directly with the number found on our website: www.ProductiveComputing.com. Thanks again for your interest and hopefully you'll figure the color thing out.

[@axelisraelwall6898]

Yes, I am using Windows, probably that's the reason. I installed the newest version of Filemaker but the problem persists.

[@ProductiveComputing]

Ah ok. Thanks for the update. I'm not able to duplicate this on Windows either. I just tested on Windows 10 Pro with no issue. I know that the calendar is currently using I.E. 11 web kit installed on the machine for the web viewer. So perhaps you could try this on another machine (just as a test). I believe Claris is aware of this issue. Here is a somewhat related thread on the topic of WebViewer compatibility: community.claris.com/en/s/question/0D50H00006wlttUSAQ/we-need-to-stop-using-internet-explorer-as-the-engine-for-the-web-viewer My assumption would be that an issue like this will be addressed soon. There is a deep interest in getting all these features to perform consistently using either a Mac or a Windows computer.

[@luisavila3818]

@Axel I had the same problem and realized I had to set the EVENT STYLE FIELD in the Optional Fields Setting. Setting it to the 'Style' field rendered the colors!

[@ProductiveComputing]

@Luis Avila thanks for the tip!

[@bharaniv8209]

How you got holidays without time?

[@ProductiveComputing]

If you click the 'all day' checkbox you do not need to enter times. If you are importing holiday dates set the field 'AllDay' to 1 and set 'Editable' to 0 so that they cannot be accidentally moved. This is assuming you are using the FCCalendarSampleEvents table, otherwise it will be the fields that you have mapped to in the configurator. I hope that helps and Happy Holidays.