[FX.php List] Workaround for Portal Bug in Recent Versions of FMS

[Chris Hansen]

Hey all,

I know that many of us have been bitten by the portal bug in recent versions of FMS.  A fairly simple workaround struck me while answering a question of the FMExperts list (my apologies to those that already saw this there, to any who already thought of this workaround, and for not thinking of it sooner.)  The way to work around the bug would be to create calculation fields for portal rows that contain some sort of default value if the associated field is empty (perhaps zero would work for number fields, and a value like "<<NULL>>" for text fields.)

Of course, like any workaround, this isn't a perfect solution.  But if it works for you, it will allow you to use "FMPro7" for your data type rather than "FMAlt" and enjoy the associated performance improvement.  (For those who are newer to FX.php, there hasn't been a change in the associated XML schema -- other than bugs and fixes -- since FileMaker 7, so "FMPro7" is equivalent to a data type of "FMPro13".)

I hope this is of use to some of you.

Best,

--Chris