FileMaker users and developers should note the addition of calculated Custom Dialog buttons and Tab Panel names as one of the new features of FileMaker 13.
While these are relatively small changes, we are pleased to see FileMaker continuing to expand the incorporation of the calc dialog throughout the FileMaker development environment.
Here is example as implemented in the FileMaker Server 13 sample file that comes installed with FileMaker Server.
Customize by Language
This is great news for helping developers create language-localized solutions. In particular, calculated tab panel labels no longer need to be overlaid on the panel, reducing layout maintenance. In this case, tab panel names are now calculated, the values drawn from a table of translated labels in multiple languages. The sample file checks the application language on start-up and sets a global field that drives the connection to all of the tab panel, field and button labels.
I made a quick modification to the sample file that allows the user to change the language, updating all of the labels on the fly, just to illustrate the point:
Custom Dialog button name definition also got the benefit of the calculation dialog. Note in this case I am using a field, the Project Name, as the calculation for the button in the dialog. This is a simplistic example, but illustrates that the dialog is aware of the table occurrence context when it is generated (and also has access to table occurrences related to such):
One final note regarding the buttons on the Custom Dialog: They are still limited in size and will not display text beyond 11 or so characters.
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