This post is a now wiki. Please edit if you have more accurate info.
You know, there are those settings that stick once the file is hosted and if we want to change those, we need to take the file down, change what needs to be changed and have the server host it again. Nothing that can be fixed by doing something in the opening script. (some of them you can change manually for the duration of your session, but that's what I'm trying to avoid).
So I'm just trying to list those to know what I should re-visit before uploading a file to the server.
Here is what I can come up with, without putting too much effort into this. Thanks for any updates you may share.
Regional settings (clone & open with correct settings if those need to change)
User network access + whether to display the file or not on the host (user network access can actually be modified, as long as you have at least one user with sufficient privileges. Thanks to @tonywhitelive for sharing this )
Minimum version allowed to open the file (prior to fms19, thanks to @skywillmott for his comment )
Default Line, Fill and font face, size, color, etc.
Also, here are some questions I have:
Can someone confirm if 'Require full access privileges to use references to this file' can be changed when the file is hosted? Thank you @Malcolm & @Torsten for confirming this can be changed on a hosted file
Anyone knows what controls what has a tick mark by default for what is listed under the 'View â Show' menu? @tonywhitelive answered here.
Same question about the customization of the Status Area Toolbar? @FabriceN Pointed out this customization lives client side.
For anyone who wants to voice how this is problematic for them, this is the product idea on the community I found to be the closest match
I believe you can change the âRequire Full Access privs to use references to this fileâ while the file is hosted.
The View defaults are: Browse Mode, View as Form and Status Toolbar visible.
Changes to the Status area Toolbar only affect the user account of the machine that you are operating. You can show/hide the toolbar but you cannot control the items that are displayed. The exception to this is that the toolbar will reflect the Permissions for an account and the state of Custom Menus.
Just double-checked it: file access can be changed on a hosted file.
For toolbar and menu control, a config script runs at launch time of a file on a client. That gives fine-grained control on a per user level.
One of the most Important single user issues is the retention of any values entered in global fields.
We have shutdown scripts that clear all of these when in single user mode. We use layouts, list the fields on these and loop through, hence just dragging a new global field on to a layout means it will be included in the scripts.
One of the most important: Ruler units⌠Default here is cm (Centimeters) - fatal, because of alignment. If one switches to pt (should be defaultâŚ), objects will never align since its likely to get fractals for points (123.123pt) as well.
Also, when having a âfractalâ in the height of data part, a lower nav-part will make problems when adding objects such as scaling, etc. with a small height (ie 15 pt) - objects will simply not show, leaving a developer in searching foreverâŚ
A script of the client launch routine takes care of deleting/setting globals in concerned tables. This way it is done in a explicit way, no stray or missing values during a user session.
Yes! A kingdom for settings like these - and another kingdom for not having issues with settings that can only altered when a file is local - and this happens just as fmi wantâs to go away from peer2peer, pushing the cloudâŚ
itâs sometimes hard to get attention to issues. Fmi does not really like the wording âissuesâ and as I tried to file in an issue report about fractals for pt, others didnât get the point (hehe - pt (point) is the pointâŚ) and replied that they strictly donât want the non-fractals - because for inches and centimeters, fractals are needed. Unfortunately this is not so true for pt.
I can understand that itâs hard for filemaker to get that issue (assuming that only a small part of the users wonât like the current method)
We got some projects where we have to update layouts from older versions (v12/14 to 18 and v15 to 18) where we (among a lot of other things) add a lower navigation part that contains the missing status elements (scaling, show/hide top status-bar,)
That part has a height of 15 pt, black color. If the data part above has fractals (not all do have that, but quite a few), the new, custom lower status will simply not show anything, somewhat scary (and I forgot about that fractal problem every second time it happensâŚ)
In âFile/Options/Spellingâ, the default for âIndicate questionable words with special underlineâ must be set before upload to server. It cannot be controlled via script and a hosted solution does not retain changes beyond a session.
Thanks @tonywhitelive! It seems even the values for the radio-button above can be modified (provided a network user with sufficient privileges has access).
I was not aware of that. Thanks for sharing! Do you know by any chance if it has always been this way or if it was changed in a given version? I tried on FMS18 and it worked. Glad I can take this one off the list!
Thanks for testing the list & thanks for pushing for continuous improvements and better documentation. Based on what you said, I tested and crossed from the list both default login (matching the file option you pointed to) and Keychain Access. I did not test anything else.
Sorry for not testing things much further. As you know, this is really the type of things Claris should document better.
This only proves how hard it is to make sense of what can and cannot be changed on a hosted file.
Also, please note that I do not see what is here as actual documentation, nor am I trying to claim so (the text "Here is what I can come up with, without putting too much effort into this." says it all). I see it more like a wiki (even attempting to credit contributors as much as possible): to update as knowledge increases & to correct when proven wrong, pretty much the way stuff works with any hypothesis in science in general. Looking at the questions I had towards the end of the post, it seems like I did not have access to much that would let me test things out when I first wrote the list. It is also like the rest of the free stuff out there: rely on it at your own risk, expect no warranties or support of any kind.
I do not think I can do much by myself. Our strength is in numbers: power to community contributions!
Widening the discussion, I hope no ones feel like putting forward a list or anything else necessarily comes with the burden of providing "official documentation" level of accuracy. I think that would only deter people from making contributions and I think the community would lose in the process. Even official documentation is not always as accurate as we would hope.
"Thank you for making a list and checking it twice": You are welcome for the first item. If the second item was expected, I'll attempt being bolder in my disclaimers the next time around, but I would recommend adjusting expectations.
"Upgrading anything below FM16" is a strange comment coming from the guy who asked about this recently.
See you around at a virtual meetup sometime soon, or the NY one - I hear you guys will bring out the big guns on your soon-to-be-any-moment-now virtual gathering.
With FileMaker Pro/Server 19 the minimum version allowed to open a file can be changed whilst file is already hosted. You can also specify major/minor version number such as '19.1'
