About window styles
Window styles allow you to specify how a new window behaves in your solution. Each layout and task should be designed with a particular window style in mind.
Document window
Document windows allow users to start a new process or view additional information.
Use document windows for typical user-input tasks or tasks that can take place in any order. For example, open a document window to review an invoice while looking at a customer’s purchase history.
Floating document window
Floating document windows remain on top of other windows even when the floating window becomes inactive.
Use floating document windows to display information or tasks that should be visible at all times. For example, open a floating document window to display an interactive table of contents.
Dialog window
Dialog windows appear in the foreground. Users must close all open dialog windows before they can activate open document or floating document windows.
Use dialog windows to collect required information or alert users to situations while blocking access to other windows. For example, open a dialog window to display an alert when a user attempts to modify sensitive data.
Keep the following points in mind:
•When a dialog window is open, the
New Window script step creates dialog windows or cards, but cannot create document or floating document windows.
•Users can work with non-document windows, such as the FileMaker Pro Advanced Data Viewer and Script Debugger, if these windows are open when a dialog window opens. Users cannot work with the Manage Layout dialog box, the Script Workspace, or the Launch Center.
•Any operations that attempt to open a document or floating document window will fail when a dialog window is open (for example, using a
script trigger to run a script from another file). OnTimer scripts do not execute when a dialog window is open unless the script launches from the dialog window itself.
•Some restrictions apply to the following script steps when they’re used with dialog windows.
Script step | Supported | Restriction with dialog windows |
Adjust Window | Yes | Operates only on the current window |
Arrange All Windows | No | |
Convert File | No | |
Go To Related Record | Yes | Can open only a new dialog window |
Move/Resize Window | Yes | Operates only on the current window |
New File | No | |
New Window | Yes | Can open only a new dialog window or a card |
Open File | No | |
Open Remote | No | |
Perform Script | Yes | Will fail if executed from another open file |
Quit Application | No | |
Select Window | Yes | Can select only the current dialog window |
•macOS: A FileMaker Pro dialog window does not have all the same qualities or restrictions of a standard macOS dialog window. For example, Apple events can communicate with a file while a FileMaker Pro dialog window is open.
Card
Cards appear in the foreground of the current layout in the active window. Users must close a card before they can work with the card’s parent window.
Use cards to collect required information or alert users to situations while allowing access to other windows. For example, open a card to prompt users for find criteria while allowing access to other open windows.
Keep the following points in mind:
•Cards can’t be minimized or maximized.
•FileMaker Pro does not include cards in the Window menu.
•A card’s height and width cannot exceed the screen size.
•Scroll bars appear in the card if the active layout is larger than the card’s height or width.
•You cannot open more than one card from the same parent window.
•In FileMaker Go, to hide or show the menu bar or toolbar for a card, you must hide or show the bar before displaying the card. (The gesture or script step to hide or show the card is disabled when the card has the focus.)
•If you select the Close option, the user can close the card by clicking the Close button in FileMaker Pro or by tapping outside the card in FileMaker Go. However, if you don’t select the Close option, users have no way to close the card unless you include a script (for example, assigned to a button in the card) that performs the
Close Window script step.
•If a script attempts to close a card’s parent window, the script first attempts to close the card. If it cannot close the card (for example, a script trigger fails), the script returns an error code.