At uLearnIT, we love solving your problems. Here is Part 2 of the latest problem solved for a client using our mentoring services. If you missed Part 1, it is here.

Request

In an existing FileMaker solution, we would like to know if certain scripts and layouts are being used. Over the years, the solution has been added to and updated in a haphazard manner and we would like to clean it up. How can we find out which scripts and layouts are in use?

Solution

From Part 1, the key to this solution is to automatically log the use of scripts and layouts by triggering a script. The script will record the name of the layout or script used and then create a log record. The log record will be created in a special table for the purpose.

Script use

The script to log script use will be called at the start of each script – using the Perform Script script step. It will pass the currently running script name as a script parameter that will be entered into a log record. To set up the script step in any script:

1. Open the Script Workspace and open a script.
2. Add the script step Perform Script to the start of the script.
3. Specify the Log script use script.
4. Set the Optional script parameter to Get ( ScriptName ). 

The script used to Log Script Use is as follows:

New Window [ Style: Card; Using layout: “uselog” (uselog); Height: 100; Width: 100; Top: 0; Left: -1000; Dim parent window: No ]
New Record/Request
Set Field [ uselog::name; Get ( ScriptParameter ) ]
Set Field [ uselog::item; "script" ]
Close Window [ Current Window ]

In the script above, the operation is performed in a card window off the user screen. This ensures that it does not interfere with the user’s normal actions or that of any running script. Since the parent screen does not dim, the user should not notice the script run. 

The script creates a new card window and goes to a layout to create a new log record. It uses Set Field script steps to set the name field with the script parameter (in this case the script name), and the item field with the text string script.

Add the Perform Script step (simply copy and paste between scripts) to every script for which you want to log use. Over time as the solution is used, the log records build an account of script use. This can then be analysed to see which script are most commonly used and which scripts are rarely or not used.

Addendum

A suggestion tweeted by @tonywhitelive was to also record Script Parameter, File Name and Layout Name when logging scripts. 

The file name would be useful when logging scripts running outside of the file where the log record exists. The script parameter and the layout name will provide some useful data about how and where the script was triggered.

So we will need to add three more fields to the log record – parameter, file, layout. And then adjust the script logging script to unpack and apply the various values.

When calling the new script, the parameter will use the List function to capture multiple pieces of data as a list of values:

List ( Get(ScriptName); Get(FileName); Get(LayoutName); Get(ScriptParameter) )

These values can then easily be unpacked when received using the GetValue function.

So there you have it – even more functional script use logging. Thanks Tony!

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