Note This feature is available when the Use advanced tools general preference is selected. See Using advanced tools.
FileMaker Pro Advanced provides two ways to document the details of your custom app by saving:
•a copy of the file in XML format
•a Database Design Report
You can save a copy of a FileMaker Pro Advanced file in an XML format that represents the schema, layouts, scripts, and other parts of the file. This XML format contains most of the details about the file, but it contains no record data, and account information is encrypted.
Because the XML file is text, you can store it in version control systems such as Git and use standard text-based tools to compare versions.
Important This XML format is provided as a preview to gather customer feedback; it may change significantly in future FileMaker Pro Advanced versions and is not intended for use in production systems.
1. Open the file to save as XML.
You must have full access privileges for the file.
2. Choose Tools menu > Save a Copy as XML.
3. Change the default filename and choose a different folder, if needed, then click Save.
The folder containing the XML file opens.
Use the Database Design Report feature to document the schema of your database and save it as an HTML or XML file.
With the Database Design Report, you can:
•produce reports for any databases that are currently open
•gather statistics on the structure of your database
•use the information in the report to re-create the structure of your database if you lose the original database files
•examine a textual representation of your database schema
•choose which elements (fields, relationships, scripts, and so on) and tables of the database to document
•troubleshoot missing references, broken relationships, calculations, and more
A Database Design Report in HTML format includes a Report Overview that provides a snapshot of most of the elements in each database file. The Report Overview contains hyperlinks to details about elements in each database file.
A Database Design Report in XML format contains information about the elements in each database file, and is ready to be transformed into the format you require. You can create tools that can use the Database Design Report XML to analyze or process the structure of databases. See FileMaker Pro Advanced Database Design Report XML Output Grammar.
1. Open all database files for which you want to produce a Database Design Report.
You must have full access privileges for any file for which you want to produce a Database Design Report and the file must be open in FileMaker Pro Advanced.
2. Choose Tools menu > Database Design Report.
3. In the Available Files list, clear any files that you want to exclude from the report by clearing the checkbox associated with the file.
4. If there are any files that contain tables that you want to exclude from the report, select the filename in addition to the checkbox in the Available Files list.
5. From Include in report, clear elements that you want to exclude from the report.
6. If you prefer to publish the report in XML format instead of the default HTML, select XML in the Report Format section.
7. Click Create, then Save to save the database design report.
•The information provided in the HTML report is a subset of the information provided in the XML version.