Working with a Claris Studio data source

A Claris Studio data source lets a FileMaker Pro file access data from external Claris Studio tables. You can view and update Claris Studio tables interactively in the relationships graph in much the same way you view and update FileMaker tables.

If a Claris Studio data source isn't present in a file, or if you need to add a table for a recently created Claris Studio view, you can add the data source and add a table in the relationships graph. When you do, the following are added to the file:

  • Your team's Claris Studio data source (only if you are a team manager in the current team)

  • A "shadow" table that links to each Claris Studio table

  • In each Claris Studio table, a read-only RecordID field that you can use as a primary key field in relationships (see About relationships). This field is also present in any Claris Studio table you add after you create the file.

  • A table occurrence in the relationships graph for each Claris Studio table

  • A layout based on each Claris Studio table occurrence

  • A "shadow" value list that links to the option list for each Claris Studio field that supports one

Setting up a Claris Studio table in the relationships graph

You can work with Claris Studio tables in the relationships graph and on layouts as you would with other FileMaker tables. You can retrieve, add, update, and delete data in the Claris Studio table interactively, in real time.

  1. If you haven't already signed in with your Claris ID, choose File menu > Sign in to Claris ID, then sign in.

  2. Choose File menu > Manage > Database.

  3. In the Relationships tab in the Manage Database dialog, click Add table button.

  4. In the Specify Table dialog, for Data Source, choose your team name under Claris Studio Data Sources (this option is available only to team managers).

    You see a list of the external tables for the team’s Claris Studio data source.

    If a Claris Studio data source isn't present, choose Add Claris Studio Data Source.

    Note  Only one team selection per file is supported.

  5. Select the table you want and click OK.

    The external table appears in the relationships graph. The table name appears in italics. For information on linking to and working with tables in the relationships graph, see Working with the relationships graph.

    To identify whether a table in the relationships graph is a FileMaker table or from a Claris Studio data source, move the pointer over the arrow in the table header. You might want to add a color to Claris Studio tables in order to identify them more easily.

    After you add a table to the relationships graph, FileMaker Pro adds a layout with that table name to the Layout pop-up menu and the table is listed in the Tables tab. The table name appears in italics.

    Fields from the Claris Studio table appear in the Fields tab. The field names appear in italics. You can remove fields if you don't want FileMaker Pro to display them within your custom app. These fields are not removed from the table schema of the Claris Studio data source. They're removed only from the FileMaker Pro representation of that table's schema. To add fields that were added in Claris Studio, you can synchronize the field schema. See Updating data between FileMaker and Claris Studio data sources.

Limitations on working with Claris Studio data sources

  • You cannot change the schema of tables in a Claris Studio data source. However, you can add supplemental fields to do calculations and summaries on data from Claris Studio tables.

  • Most Claris Studio field types are supported and correspond to FileMaker Pro field types as described in Claris Studio Help.

  • In the Fields tab of the Manage Database dialog, field options are not supported.