These are the docs for our FM10/11 version of the Pro Calendar. Docs for the newer, FM12 version of our calendar can be found here.
Integration Options.
Who is this Quick Integration designed for.
This quick version is for folks who want to keep the calendar as a separate file-- as a second .fp7 in their solution. This can be a great option if you need to get up and running right away, or if you don't intend to really change the look and feel of the calendar layouts.
If you want to more throughly integrate the calendar with your solution, follow these instructions for pasting the calendar layouts and scripts into your file.
Before you get to work, you can watch a short video of the entire integration being done: it takes just 5 minutes... Quick Integration Video.
Step-by-Step Instructions: Quick Integration.
1. Getting ready.
Back up your file. Seriously.
Now move SeedCodeCalendar.fp7 into the same folder as the file you'll be working with. If you'd like to rename the calendar file, do that now as well.
These instructions assume you already have a table whose records you want to see in the calendar. If you don't, you can just paste our SampleEvents table into your file and skip step 2 below.
You may also have more than one table (more more than one date field in a table) that you want to see in the calendar. Don't worry about that for now: get one table/field up and running and then you can come back and configure
additional event sources.
2. Field Definitions.
Open up SeedCodeCalendar.fp7 and select File / Manage / Database, selecting the "Fields" tab of the "Manage Database" window and select the "SampleEvents" table. You'll copy a couple fields from here and add them to your file. If you have FileMaker Advanced this is as simple as copying the last two fields...
z_sc_TimestampEndCalc
z_sc_TimestampStartCalc
...and pasting them into your file. Once they are there, edit the definition for each, removing the leading and trailing "comment" tags (the /* and */), and selecting
your fields for the DateStart, TimeStart etc. fields used in the calculation's let statements. If you don't have end date or end time fields in your file, just map these to the same fields as the start fields or create new fields for this purpose. (If you create new fields, make sure the date fields are of the type "date" and the time fields are "time".)
If you don't have FileMaker advanced, copy the definitions of these fields, carefully recreating them in your file. Make sure both are of the type "timestamp".
3. The Relationship Graph.
Return to SeedCodeCalendar.fp7 and again select File / Manage / Database, selecting the "Relationships" tab of the Manage Database window.
Double click on the "SampleEvents" table occurrence in the graph and click in the pop-up list next to "Data Source:"-- select "Add FileMaker Data Source" from the list of options and, in the next window, select your file.
You'll now see all the tables in your file: select the one which has the records you'd like to see in the calendar. Change the name at the bottom of the "Specify Table" window back to "SampleEvents" (you can change it back later) and click "OK". You've now "pointed" the calendar's events table at the events table in your file: eventually you'll be able to delete the SampleEvents table in SeedCodeCalendar.fp7, but don't do it yet as you'll need it in the next step.
Note, if your events are linked to contacts, you can do the same thing with the SampleContacts table occurrence you see in the calendar, double click on the table occurrence, select your file (which now appears in the list of data sources) and select the contacts table in your file. Create a relationship between SampleEvents and SampleContacts using the same match fields you use for this kind of relationship in your file.
And if you're using the gantt chart you'll want to do the same thing to our SampleProjects table occurrence and our SamplePhases (if you're using Phases, if you're not just leave it alone). Point these at the relevant tables in your file and make sure that they are connected to SampleEvents by the unique ids in each table.
4. Layouts Part 1: Field Mapping
Navigate to the Source No 1 layout in SeedCodeCalendar.fp7 and follow the instructions on the layout to map the fields there to the relevant fields in your events table. Map the "Summary" to a simple field for now like your event's title, just to get you up and running, then return here and try mapping the summary to something more interesting to create a
multi-line event display.
5. Layouts Part 2: Event Details
Move to the Event Details layout in SeedCodeCalendar.fp7 and edit this layout as you see fit, pointing the current fields to
your own fields. Just be sure to keep the following 3 objects: the "repeat" button, the "show repts..." button below it, and the large "close..." button at the bottom of the screen. You can come back and edit this layout later, for now, just get the Summary, Date, and Time fields lined up with the relevant fields in your events table.
6. That's it.
Refresh the calendar and you'll see your events. Pretty simple.
Enjoy!
Going Further
Eventually you'll want to come back to the Event Detail layout from step 5 and get that just right, and consider color-coding events if that makes sense in your file. You'll also want to read through the script "Load Calendar Settings - On Startup --- Edit Configuration Here ---" making changes as necessary as this lets you change a number of the calendar's default settings.
If you watched our integration video, you saw that we integrated with a table of Contact records, each of which had a "next contact date" as a field in the contact's record. When integrated with a table like this, the "new" button on the calendar doesn't make much sense: as in this case it would create a new contact record. Maybe that is what you want, but likely you'd want to create a new "action" for a contact and so the contacts file in our example would have been better served by adding an actions or events table to it and linking that table to our contact: pasting in the Sample Events table from SeedCode Calendar would have been a way to start that.
In any event, think about the kind of records you've mapped to Source No 1 and Event Detail, and if you think you might need an action or events table, you hopefully now have the confidence to begin adding one.
And don't forget you can have more than one calendar at a time--more than one "source"--and have some from fields in a contact's record and other calendars from events tables. Learn more by reading about multiple sources.
