Input Filtering

FMP 8.5

Our FMNP guru is filtering certain inputs to block various characters
from text fields. She's doing so with an exclude list. But every so
often, we end up with some other weird character that causes troubles
later.

Is there a way to have a specific include list: i.e allow

a-z
A-Z
0-9
-
_
.
'

and that is it?

--
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

Re: Input Filtering

Look at the Filter function.

You tell it what characters you want, it discards the rest.

M

on 11/02/07 2:35 PM David Lesher said:
> FMP 8.5
>
> Our FMNP guru is filtering certain inputs to block various characters
> from text fields. She's doing so with an exclude list. But every so
> often, we end up with some other weird character that causes troubles
> later.
>
> Is there a way to have a specific include list: i.e allow
>
> a-z
> A-Z
> 0-9
> -
> _
> .
> '
>
> and that is it?
>

Input Filtering

I'm having an interesting discussion with our developer about input field
filtering.

I'm concerned about NOT getting anything beyond

a-z A-Z 0-9 - _ ' . [space]

in text fields that end up elsewhere. She objects to changing things
post-entry, comparing it to Word's vile habits of deciding you want
numbers before the lines you added, {and you can't get them to go away}
and such...

I'm also not happy to learn that FMP can, on its own, substitute
incorrectly-called "smart quotes" and it is a variable that can't be
overruled by the table. [Ie: if Jane's machine has that set; it ends up
in the table on Server...]

I also worry about cut&paste disease; having once be locked out of a
vital system because someone had used cut&paste on the password....and
the system treated the invisible V/T at the end as part of the password.



So I am curious: how do you enforce/implement input text field limits?

--
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

Re: Input Filtering

Use the Filter function to autoenter only permitted characters?

M

on 11/09/07 10:54 AM David Lesher said:
> I'm having an interesting discussion with our developer about input field
> filtering.
>
> I'm concerned about NOT getting anything beyond
>
> a-z A-Z 0-9 - _ ' . [space]
>
> in text fields that end up elsewhere. She objects to changing things
> post-entry, comparing it to Word's vile habits of deciding you want
> numbers before the lines you added, {and you can't get them to go away}
> and such...
>
> I'm also not happy to learn that FMP can, on its own, substitute
> incorrectly-called "smart quotes" and it is a variable that can't be
> overruled by the table. [Ie: if Jane's machine has that set; it ends up
> in the table on Server...]
>
> I also worry about cut&paste disease; having once be locked out of a
> vital system because someone had used cut&paste on the password....and
> the system treated the invisible V/T at the end as part of the password.
>
>
>
> So I am curious: how do you enforce/implement input text field limits?
>

Re: Input Filtering

In article , David Lesher
wrote:

> I'm having an interesting discussion with our developer about input field
> filtering.
>
> I'm concerned about NOT getting anything beyond
>
> a-z A-Z 0-9 - _ ' . [space]
>
> in text fields that end up elsewhere. She objects to changing things
> post-entry, comparing it to Word's vile habits of deciding you want
> numbers before the lines you added, {and you can't get them to go away}
> and such...

"Post-entry" I think is the vital clue here, and the answer is that you
can't limit what can be entered into a field when the user is still
entering it. You can only limit (validate) or change the data once they
leave the field.

You can stop most (if not all) of Word's annoying "helpful" features,
but even leaving them turned on you can stop the auto-numbering /
bullets points by simply backspacing over the added number / bullet
point symbol.



> I'm also not happy to learn that FMP can, on its own, substitute
> incorrectly-called "smart quotes" and it is a variable that can't be
> overruled by the table. [Ie: if Jane's machine has that set; it ends up
> in the table on Server...]

Smart quotes can be removed via an extra Calculation field or possibly
the formatting options in newer versions of FileMaker.



> I also worry about cut&paste disease; having once be locked out of a
> vital system because someone had used cut&paste on the password....and
> the system treated the invisible V/T at the end as part of the password.
>
> So I am curious: how do you enforce/implement input text field limits?

Cut and paste is part of using a computer. Even if you could trun it
off it would be a very silly thing to do since people expect it to be
there.

Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

Re: Input Filtering

We just got a rude example of why validating the input is essential.

In this app; data is stored in FMP; and a XML file {well, 2}
are pushed to a website for display. {It's the mapping at
} There, it's massaged and loaded in a
PHP-driven MySQL app, who pushed data to Google.

One new house did not have a login on the Maintenance menu. Several
hours later; we figured out the cause. A house 800 records earlier was
the immediately previous entry when alpha-sorted, as it was at the stage.

And that early record had a backquote at the end of a numeric field.
That got exported in the XML, and once in PHP, the fit hit the shan.

We're now discussing how to avoid recurrences..
--
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433