Claris FileMaker Add-ons: Required Fields

We’re continuing our discussion of the new FileMaker 19 add-ons. Claris has released a great video on these add-ons, but, in this series of posts, we’re taking a deep dive into how the add-ons work. In this post we look at the required fields for the FileMaker Add-ons.

Add-ons Required Fields

Each add-on has one or more required fields for it to work. The dashboard-type add-ons (Kanban, Calendar, Activity Timeline, Photo Gallery) all require the Primary key field of the source data records. That’s a given. The Heatmap add-on doesn’t require a primary key field since it will return all the events of a clicked-on date.

But each add-on has other requirements, and you can see the FileMaker add-on required fields in the configurator. But the configurator is in one part of the add-on, and adding fields is elsewhere, so what follows is a list of all the required fields for each in-product add-on. You can use this list to create the fields in your data tables (or just copy from the SampleData table that comes with each add-on).

An Example Configurator

Remember, these fields do need to be on the target layout, whether on or off screen (off the layout to the right), in order for the add-on configurator to get the data you need.

For fun, I’ll list the non-required fields as well, just so you can make them all at once. These fields provide additional functionality if you choose to add them to your data table.

Calendar

Required Fields

  • Primary Key
  • Title: that which you’ll see on the calendar.
  • Start Date
  • End Date
  • Start Time
  • End Time

Non-Required fields

  • Tooltip
  • AllDay – a number field (1 or 0(empty)) representing the full-day indication
  • Editable: a number field (1 or 0/empty) to indicate if the event can be clicked on and edited.
  • EventStyle: a text field describing the color style the event should be. The FCCalendarStyles value list provides the pre-determined choices.

Kanban

Required Fields

  • Primary Key
  • Name or Title: that which you’ll see on the board.
  • Sort: a number field determining the sort of the cards in each lane. Note: this field get constantly updated as users drag/drop to rearrange the cars on the board. But you can do an initial set of the sort.

Non-Required fields

  • Description: a field holding a description of the task. This is one paragraph with no returns in the text.
  • Label: the label will appear on the top-right of each card. You may want to put a priority level or a date field here.
  • Additional Info: the value in this field will be included in the card if there’s data in the field. It just provides more information about the task.
  • Assigned to: pick a field that holds the assignee name.
  • Card Style: a text field describing the color style the event should be. The KanbanSampleStyles value list provides the pre-determined choices.

Activity Timeline

Required Fields

  • Primary Key
  • Start Date: A timestamp or date field.

Non-Required fields

  • Title
  • Description: a field holding a description of the task. This is one paragraph with no returns in the text.
  • Assigned: pick a field that holds the assignee name.
  • Background: a text field describing the color style the event should be. The ActivityTimeline Styles value list provides the pre-determined choices.

Required Fields

  • Primary Key
  • Photo: This field points to either a container field or a base64-encoded field (see the sample data table). If the file with the add-on is hosted, you can use the container field. Local files require the base64-encoded field.
  • Scale Width: A number field given the relative width of the image. You can calculate this from the original width of the photo. See the SampleData table for examples.
  • Scale Height: A number field given the relative height of the image. You can calculate this from the original height of the photo. See the SampleData table for examples.

Calendar Heatmap

Required Fields

  • Start Date: A timestamp or date field.

Barcode Creator

Required Fields

  • Barcode Source: The data you want to turn into a barcode.
  • Image: Where to place the barcode image.


Timer

Required Fields

  • Time Logged: A field where the time from the timer will be placed when a user stops the timer.
  • Total Time: A field which holds the total time.
  • Time last Started: This field will be given a UTC timestamp when the timer starts, which is used to determine the state of the timer: on or off as users navigate to other records.

Text Editor

Required Fields

  • Rich Text HTML: This is the field where the rich text will be placed and read from when the editor loads.

Simple Chart

Required Fields

  • Field One: A number field with a value that will be graphed on the chart.

Non-Required fields

These non-required fields are additional data points you can plot on the chart.

  • Field Two
  • Field Three
  • Field Four