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The following are some considerations when working with the Ranges plug-in.

1. Why can't I show ranges beyond 20 or so years?
FileMaker Pro text and calculation fields are limited to 64K of text. The Field Size Warning switch (part of the plug-in) will warn a user if they have specified a range beyond the 64K allocation. This prevents improper values being shown in portals. In our testing the maximum range of dates possible is about 25 years if only the default FileMaker Pro method of date display is used. The default FileMaker Pro date method uses an incremental range increasing by a value of 1 from the starting date of 1/1/0001. So January 1 of 2000 is stored internally as 730120. It requires less memory space to store the six digit figure than longer dates such as 12/12/2000 where each character in the date string has a byte value.

2. My portal won't show any data!
When using a relationship between fields both sides must be the same type. For example, if you use the native format for a FileMaker Pro date of 73XXXX then the field in the related database must be a text result. If the field you are relating to is a date field it may be necessary to convert a date using an additional calculation field. For example, if you have a field named "Creation date" in your database and the type is date then you may need to convert this field using another calculation referencing the creation date field and setting the new value to a type of text. Developer note: It is possible to use the Status(CurrentDate) function or other date functions and specify a result of number for the calculation. A relationship of text range field to number calculation field will function properly. However, you must use the raw dates method of storage for the range.

3. When I scroll down the range calculation why isn't all the data shown?
In some cases, with very large ranges, not all data will be visually shown by the calculated range field. There is a confirmed bug in FileMaker Pro where it will not show the full contents of a field which exceeds a certain size in kilobytes. However, all of the data is within the field and portals will show all related records. Copying the contents of the field (by selecting all) and pasting into an external editor will reveal all the dates (or numbers) from the range in the calculated field.

4. Why would I want to have No Return At End (a switch option for the plug-in) on the range generated?
In some situations you may wish to use the powerful PatternCount function to count the number of return characters within the return delimited list of range values created by the plug-in. Having the ability to turn this option on or off increases the different types of math you can use with the plug-in.

5. The plug-in won't work at all.
FileMaker 4.0v1 was a version that had problems with the newly (at that time) implemented plug-in architecture. The best solution for this problem is to upgrade for free to version 4.0v2 and higher. You will find updater files at the FileMaker, Inc. web site. Please make sure all plug-ins are in the folder "FileMaker Extensions" (Macintosh) or "System" folder (Windows) and are enabled in the preferences (Under Edit/Preferences/Application/Plug-ins). Make sure all plug-ins are checked to make them active.


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How the Plug-in Works:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Home