ES Webfiles/FileMaker Terms

Some of the common terms used for our school database are listed below. If you need help from IT or your advisor, it is helpful to everyone if you would first identify the layout, record, and fields you are looking at and give that information to the person you are asking for help when you formulate your questions. For those of you who did the CTAP database training, this may be review.

Layout - An arrangement of fields, objects, pictures, and layout parts that represents the way information is organized and presented when you browse, preview, or print records. When you go to a different “page” in Webfiles, you are looking at a “layout”. To identify the layout, be able to tell whether you went there from the Create, View, or Search menu, then what item you selected on the menu. For example, if you were looking at a layout that included the name of an inactive student, you would say you were on the “View/All Students” layout.

Record - One set of fields in a database table. Each record contains data about a single activity, individual, subject, or transaction. For esample, if you were on the “View/All Students” layout, and from there you selected “John Smith” , you would be in his “record”.

Field - The basic unit of data entry in a record. You define a field to hold a specific type of data, such as Name or Date, or to display the results of calculations on data in other fields. FileMaker Pro uses text, number, date, time, timestamp, container, calculation, and summary fields. For example, on “John Smith’s” record, if you looked at “Date of Birth” entry, it is a “field”.

File - A separate collection of data, usually with multiple fields, records, and layouts. The file name is listed at the top of the layout on the blue bar, near the left. This is very important information to give the person you are communicating with. For example, when I view John Smith’s record, the file name shown is “Studnt”, or what we call the student file.

Menu- Drop Down List under each word at the top bar. The menus for FileMaker are File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Records, Scripts, Window, Help. When you select the Window menu, it shows you a list of files you have open. You can go back and forth between them from the Window menu, or use the shortcut buttons on your layouts.