FMDiff™

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Last modified November 01 2008, 00:00:00 CET.

A Free Tool for FileMaker Pro Developers on Macintosh

FileMaker Pro Advanced and FileMaker Developer do not directly show whether Debug Scripts is On or Off. The only way to to find out, is to click on the Scripts or Tools menu and see whether the Debug Scripts menu item has its check-mark set.

This turns out to be very inconvenient, since after modifying a script, you never know for sure what's happening when you perform it from within the "Define Scripts for..." dialog.

FMMenulet provides a solution to the problem by constantly reflecting the current state of the Debug Scripts check mark with an icon in the system menu-bar. Moreover, clicking on this icon toggles the state of that check mark and thus switches Debug Scripts on and off.

FMMenulet works with FileMaker Pro Developer 6, 7, and FileMaker Pro Advanced 8, and above.

FMMenulet requires Max OS X 10.4 or later.

Download this free and handy tool today!

Download		Type	Size	Version
	FMMenulet for Macintosh	.dmg	1.10 MB	1.0.4
There are no plans for a Windows version, sorry.

Please note:

On OS X you may run many different versions of FileMaker Pro at the same time. FMMenulet always shows the state of the frontmost FileMaker Pro application.

To toggle the Debug Scripts state in the currently active FileMaker Pro version, click on the icon in the menu bar.

For a menu double-click on the icon.

FMMenulet is intended to be launched when a user logs in and therefor should be added to the startup items.

FMMenulet runs in the background and has no Dock icon.

FMMenulet is not a Plug-in, it's is an independent application that monitors the Debug Scripts state (On or Off) and displays an appropriate icon in the system menu-bar - and therefor can NOT crash FileMaker Pro whatsoever.

To take advantage of FMMenulet, "Access for assitive devices" must be enabled, otherwise the icon will not follow the Debug Scripts state and a click on it has no effect. If access for assistive devices is NOT enabled at startup, an appropriate message is shown.

To enable access for assistive devices, open system preferences and click Universal Access.

Then select the check-mark at the bottom of the window.

Version history

Date	Version	Remarks (apply for PPC Mac and Intel Mac, unless otherwise noted. No Windows version available or planned.)
2008-10-31	1.0.4	Maintenance update. Error corrections, coding improved.
2007-01-30	1.0.3	Maintenance update.
2007-01-15	1.0.2	More languages added. FMMenulet is now localized for Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Swedish. Reduced size of download package to 1.1 MB.
2007-01-05	1.0.1	FMMenulet Final Release published. Added Swedish localization. Optimized for application size.
2006-12-30	1.0.0f	Added sophisticated About FMMenulet window. Implemented automated update procedure. Added check for minimum system requirements (10.4.0). Added support for 8 languages, 5 fully localized. Added support for Custom Menus. Added "Open on login" functionality. Corrected some bugs, removed all memory leaks.
2006-11-30	1.0.0d	Removed a bug that kept FMMenulet from starting when "Access for assistive Devices" was not enabled. Sends FMDiff to the background when modal dialogs are closed (instead of bringing all windows of the next application to the front).
2006-11-29	1.0.0c	Changed to smaller icons. Only one set of icons is used to show the Debug Scripts menu state, regardless of FileMaker version (6, 7, 8, 8.5). Brings FMMenulet to the front before displaying any modal dialogs to avoid dialogs being possibly hidden behind other windows when displayed.
2006-11-28	1.0.0b	Added support for Intel Macs. FMMenulet is now a Universal Binary.
2006-11-28	1.0.0a	Initial release.

Reader's Comments

2007-01-07
I just downloaded the latest version - now that it works with Custom Menus, it is FANTASTIC.

2007-01-05
Just chiming in to say thanks for FMMenulet! I like it very much.

2006-11-18
Thanks for the tool, I really do need something like this.

Author: First let me say I'm glad you like the tool.

Quite frankly, FMMenulet was a quick shot (after sleeping in the drawers for about a year), so there was not much testing done before releasing the first beta. My time schedule is very tight at present, since on Thursday (2006-11-30) we have a FileMaker conference here in Germany, and I wanted FMMenulet to be out before that date. Besides I'm hard working on the next update for FMDiff.

Nick asked for a toggle Debug Scripts menu shortcut.
Good idea! But you can do this quite easily with System Preferences by adding the desired shortcut to the original menu command in Keyboard & Mouse (for every FileMaker version you use).

2006-12-31
I feel one-click to show menu is better (than double-click). How about creating a menu item to toggle the state of that check mark?

Author: I agree that double-clicking for a menu is quite unusual, but the current implementation has been carefully considered.

There should be no doubt about the fact that clicking an icon in the system menu bar is easier than clicking and selecting a menu item. We already have this with the original FileMaker Pro Advanced Tools menu, so there would be no difference and no time saving effect. Clicking on an icon that provides the feedback is more intuitive than clicking and then selecting one of the appearing menu items. After all, the main purpose of FMMenulet is to visualize the current state of the Debug scripts menu item, so using the menu would be rather rare, albeit necessary from time to time. I think one quickly will get used to it.

When reporting any bugs, please include processor type, system version and language, as well as FileMaker Pro version and language, when describing what exactly had happened - in case something ever should go wrong.

Thanks for your very useful opinions. I'm listening!

Winfried