Lesson #8: Data Structure & Schema - Data Planning - Scriptology Mastery Course FileMaker

When it comes to taking the right approach for your data structure, it's a hard question to answer when you ask "Is this the right way?". This is because the answer to that question is typically, "Well, it depends." There are bad ways of structuring data and there are good ways. But the good vs. bad doesn't really come into play until you've decided how you want to apply a general structure. You see, it all comes down to how the data is going to be used. It's possible to keep all data within one table and have a "flat" structure and it's also possible to "normalize" the data to such a degree that it's a nightmare to manage. In this lesson, we'll look at how to approach your data structure by asking the right questions about what you want to do with it.

Link to the file if you'd like to follow along.

[filemakermagazine]

The issue at 7:32 (and mentioned at 10:04) I found what had caused the problem! It's a great issue to have happen live because it teaches us a great lesson! The issue was the Value List itself. It was evaluating from the Attendees table occurrence instead of the People table where it should have been evaluating from.

[UniBreakfast]

Maybe you should have planned this one video... as an exception. This is the video about planning after all. ))

[charleshuff]

I first changed the value list to evaluate from People, then carefully typed the calc shown.  Filemaker 16.03 responded "you cannot use List in this calculation"?

[ejk]

Hi Matt. I understand your choice to use a "Peoples" table, but how do you deal with non natural entities like companies, foundations etc.? Are they handled by you as a "Type" or do you use a separate table "LegalEnteties" connecting the two tables with a join table?

[da.]

Hi Matt, Would you say, that scripting with the Let function, makes our scripting to be object oriented?