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Create a new calendar from scratch, or linked to your own FileMaker file in about 5 minutes.

This video and the accompanying instructions walk you through the steps to put a soSIMPLE Calendar into your own FileMaker database, or a brand new one.  Most of the time, you’ll already have your database set up with events and these basic fields, so the first couple of steps may be unnecessary. We do recommend starting from scratch (by clicking the “New” button), rather than reverse engineering what we’ve done in our example solution. This is because we provide instructional information along the way helping you integrate into your file as quickly as possible.

1. Create (or identify) the required 5-6 fields

Your new calendar requires five fields. You can name them whatever you’d like. We usually recommend starting with the basic five or six fields before adding more customization so that you can see your calendar working smoothly before adding too many layers of customization. The required fields are:

  • Date Start (date)
  • Date End, if you have events that extend past one day (date)
  • Time Start (time)
  • Time End (time)
  • Event Description (text)
  • ID – sequential or random unique id for each event record (text or number)

2. Create (or identify) a layout and add required fields to the layout.

The calendar can only “see” fields and value lists that are on your specified layout. We recommend having a specific layout for the soSIMPLE Data Source, that only includes the fields you’ll need, but to get started you can choose an existing layout that contains the required fields.

We include a “Resume Script” button in our example to accommodate a “Pause” step in the soSIMPLE Calendar Actions script.

3. Make sure your new file is in the same directory as soSIMPLE Calendar Settings

Depending on your license, standalone calendars can be installed on your server, used from your desktop, or shared peer-to-peer. For this setup, it’s useful to keep it in the same directory as soSIMPLE Calendar Settings. Later, you will be able to move it to a different directory. The soSIMPLE Calendar Settings file is integral to your standalone calendar, so you will need to reference this file from your solution, even though your end-users will probably never see it.

4. Open the soSIMPLE Calendar Settings file and click “New”

Double-click “soSIMPLE Calendar Settings” to open it. As soon as it opens, you’ll be looking at the calendar setup window. The upper left of the calendar setup window lists existing calendars. Click “New” at the bottom of the list to create a new calendar. This opens the “New Calendar Wizard” and will walk you through the steps to set up your calendar.

  1. The first window lets you name your calendar – this is for your identification within the settings file.
  2. Since you won’t be using FileMaker Server to power your calendar, leave that checkbox blank.
  3. Click “Next” in the wizard.

5. Pick a database you’d like to use – or set up a new one.

Since this is the first time you’re adding this particular data source to soSIMPLE Calendar Settings, it won’t show up as an option yet. Choose “Set up new FileMaker file” to go to the next step.

6. Set up your database

  1. “Open a Database” – Click “Open a Database” button to open the file you created. This is required for the next step.
  2. Verify that you set up a layout for your required fields, which we did in step 2.
  3. “Open Calendar Setup” – Open the setup window to tell soSIMPLE where to find the fields you set up in step 1.
    • Name your data source – for your own reference inside soSIMPLE Calendar Settings
    • FileMaker Database – select your FileMaker database from the dropdown menu.
    • Calendar Fields Layout – select the layout where you put your fields in step 2.
    • Account Name/Password – type in the account name and password that has access to your file. For now, this can be a regular user. You can tighten security later by creating a specific account for this purpose.
    • Map the fields you defined in step 1, by selecting the corresponding field names in each row.
      • Start Date
      • End Date, if you set one up
      • Start Time
      • End Time
      • Event ID field
      • Event Text field
    • Script to run on Interaction – this will say “soSIMPLE Action Script” – and will flag an error since we haven’t copied that to our solution yet. Leave that value as it is anyway. We’ll copy that script in a moment.
    • Export Script for Standalone – This will say “Export Events Standalone.” We haven’t copied over this script yet either, but we will in a moment – so leave that value, too.
  4. Click “OK” to the setup window. You may be flagged with an error for the missing script. You can safely ignore that for now.
  5. Click “Next” in the wizard.

7. Set up your database (part 2)

For FileMaker Pro 16: Set up one of your privilege sets with the fmurlscripting extended privilege setting.

  1. Go to your FileMaker file and choose “Manage > Security” from the file menu
  2. Double-click the account name that you entered in step 6
  3. Click “Edit” next to the “Privilege Set” for that account.
  4. Turn on the checkbox next to “fmurlscripting” extended privilege for that privilege set.
  5. Click OK and return to the “New Calendar Wizard”

Copy the Calendar Field to the Clipboard – this is a required field for your file when using the standalone method. (This step requires FileMaker Advanced. If you’re using FileMaker Pro, skip it and copy the calculation text in step 9.)

  1. Click button “Copy the Calendar Field to the Clipboard.
  2. Open your file and choose “Manage > Database” from the file menu.
  3. Go to your events table, where the fields we set up in Step 1 live.
  4. Click into the area where the fields are listed
  5. Choose “Paste” from the file menu, or click the Paste button.

Copy Calendar Script to the Clipboard (This step does NOT require FileMaker Advanced.)

  1. Click this button to copy the core soSIMPLE Calendar Scripts to your clipboard
  2. Go to your file again, and open Script Manager (FileMaker 12 or 13) or Script Workspace (FileMaker 14+)
  3. Without opening any scripts, just chose “Paste” from the File menu. This will paste a folder with all the scripts you’ll need for soSIMPLE Calendar. The main one is called “soSIMPLE Calendar Actions.” This script will run automatically every time you double-click or drag anything in the calendar, or drag a blank area to create a new event. This script is completely customizable so you can control how your calendar behaves.
  4. Important step for standalone calendars –
    1. Open the script “Export Events Standalone,”
    2. Scroll down to where it says “Export Records”
    3. Edit this step by adding just the data.json field from the previous step into the export order (it will be the only field used in the export). Leave everything else the same.
    4. Save this script, and close the Script Workspace

Click “Done” in the wizard.

 

8. Your calendar is now showing up within soSIMPLE Calendar Settings.

You’re using the default settings for the calendar, which you can adjust later. For users who aren’t using the U.S. standard date (mm/dd/yyyy), please see this article.

9. Use in FileMaker Pro/Go

Click “Use in FileMaker Pro/Go” to use this calendar in your own solution.

  1. Open My File – if it’s not still open, open it again
  2. Copy the Calendar Field to the Clipboard – if you just did this in step 7, you can skip this step. If you’re using FileMaker Pro, click “Re-copy just the calculation,” create a calculation field in your file named “data.json,” and paste in the calculation text.
  3. Copy Calendar Scripts – you can skip this one, too since we did this in step 7.
  4. Copy Web Viewer Object to the Clipboard –
    1. Click this button to copy the web viewer object to your clipboard.
    2. Go to your solution and create a new standard form layout.
    3. Paste the web viewer onto the layout
      • The web viewer for standalone calendars left undefined – the “Setup Calendar” and “Refresh Calendar” scripts exports your events and other required code and renders the calendar.
      • It’s set up with the name “web_calendar” so your scripts can reference it
      • It’s anchored to all four sides so it will expand with your layout
      • There’s also a “refresh” button pasted in that calls a utility script to refresh your calendar.

10. Enter browse mode, and you will have a fully functioning calendar integrated into your solution.

Your calendar will display all the events in your file. Double-clicking an event will open the layout you created in your solution. Dragging an empty area will open a new event using your layout. You can now adjust the calendar to your specific needs:

  • Adjust the soSIMPLE Action Script to customize the behavior of double-clicking and dragging within the calendar.
  • Change the Layout of your calendar in soSIMPLE Calendar Settings to add additional calendar views
  • Change the Theme in soSIMPLE Calendar Settings to change the font, color, or other visual aspects of your calendar.
  • Change the Options in soSIMPLE Calendar Settings to tweak specific settings in the calendar.
  • Any changes made to settings in soSIMPLE Calendar Settings will immediately apply to the calendar in your solution. Just click “Refresh” to see the changes.

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