Hi,
I'm using FM Chat for several years now and migrate some files to FM 16.

Now I have a constant visual part on my layouts for the chat part.

I suppose I can use a popup window or a card to hold the chat part instead of a constant visual part on each layout....

Any suggestions on what's the best way to do it?

TIA

Monty

Hi Monty,

Thanks for reaching out regarding your upgrade to FileMaker 16.

Card windows are going to prevent any input on the layout they are opened above, so that might work for you, as long as your goal is to focus on the chat window only, then return to the original layout. Card windows will probably look better than a popup window but have a similar behavior.

If you're looking to be able to use the chat and other objects on each layout, you'll likely want to keep the chat section on each layout as before.

I hope that helps!

KC

Thanks for fast reply KC.

The real reason is that together with going to 16 the client has a lot of additional requests.

That makes it nearly impossible to have the chat as permanent visible part of layouts. Simply not enough room. Although we use popups and cards and slide controls.

From there my idea to also put the chat objects in a popup or card.
After all it is not something that is in use "all the time".

Or am I wrong?

M.

Hi Monty,

I spoke with the team a little further regarding this.

Since FM chat doesn't require that the chats be on existing layouts, you could remove the chat from your layouts and put a button on them to view chats. That button could open a new window (card window if you choose) that just shows the chats related to that record they were on.

Another idea would be to shrink how many portal rows you have visible so it just shows the last couple of chats.

Beyond that, FMChat itself is already in a separate window, so navigating to that window when a user wants to chat is also an option. The chats won't be linked to records in that case, but if that's not something you need, you can just remove the chat portal from your records entirely.

Let me know if that helps.

Thanks,

KC

Hi KC,

In a later stadium we will link the records again to the chats.

So the idea of the button/card seems to be the way to go.

We adjust the data model in that direction.

Thanks

JM

Sounds good, JM.

Let us know if you have any further questions!

Thanks,

KC