FM 14: Separation Model Data Mining

FileMakerHacks (Kevin Frank) is a master of finding more than one way to mine data from a database:

What do you get when you combine the Separation Model + FM 14 placeholder text + ExecuteSQL + a million-record table + a variable array + Get(CalculationRepetitionNumber) + the Mod and Ceiling functions + a couple custom functions, with blazingly fast (local, LAN and WAN) performance thrown in for good measure?…

Provide a data-mining interface to query a million-record table (cc_transactions) containing 20 years’ worth of credit card transactions. The client wants to be able to pick a date via a calendar widget, and see transaction info for that date, summarized by card type, transaction type and region.

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This is a separated solution, with cc_transactions living in a file called z_data.fmp12, and a specific requirement for this project is to not make any schema changes to the data file. The data-mining will take place in a separate interface file… or in this case, two interface files, since we’re going to look at two methods.

In this latest example, he again uses Placeholder Text to display data, but finds a couple of problems with it:

  • In this instance, it required a lot of new field configuration
  • Placeholder text does not print (in preview or on paper)

That last was the killer for his first solution.  So he found another way to do it, instead.  Using the poorly treated Repeating Field capability of FileMaker.  Check out both and download the example file at the link.

Source: FM 14: Separation Model Data Mining | FileMakerHacks

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