Bug In Horizontal View
Horizontal Orientation of the Scheduling Tab Can't be Edited in FM8 Layout Mode
Overview
It seems that FileMaker 8 has changed the stack order of layout objects from the way objects were stacked in FM7. This means that whenever a layout is edited for the first time in FM8 its objects are reordered according to this new stack order. While this is normally not noticeable, for some layouts it can cause a problem.
The horizontal orientation of our Scheduling Tab in the FM7 version of the calendar is one such layout. If _any_ changes are made to this layout in FM8 layout mode, the resulting restack will break the layout so that it fails to display appointments.
Note that this is the only layout among all SeedCode products that has been affected by this issue.
Resolution
If the layout isn't edited in layout mode it continues to work in FM8, however. So, one approach to this problem is to only edit the layout using FileMaker 7. Should you accidentally edit it in FM8, you can reopen the file in FM7 and paste in a clean copy of the layout from a freshly unzipped copy of your original download.
We have been working on a copy of the layout that uses an FM8 friendly stack order, but it is not coming quickly. So far I have not been able to get the buttons in the appointment rows to work. Assuming I can get it to work, we would have a version that could be edited in FM8 (though not FM7). I don't know how useful that is as long as people are still using a mix of FM7 and 8.
While we normally don't discuss future products, I believe in this case it is warranted to say that our ultimate plans are likely to remove the horizontal orientation from the next version of the calendar. We have so many users running a mix of FM7 and FM8, I wouldn't think everyone could keep the "only edit in FM8" thing straight. The horizontal orientation is also the slowest of the calendar screens (though I am fond of it, largely because it was so hard to do). I also have a sneaking suspicion that the horizontal orientation is less useful than it is just cool- and likely won't be missed. If I'm wrong about that please feel free to reply here or email me at john at seedcode.com
Update. We've build a new version of this layout in our latest product, SeedCode Complete. This is much faster than the old horizontal view and shows any number of resources vertically, but requires FileMaker 8.5 or higher.
