Waves in Motion FileMaker Tip of the Month--Include a 30-Day Expiration

Waves in Motion presents their first FileMaker Tip of the Month. They have years of FileMaker development experience and want to share some of that expertise.

Is there was a way to incorporate a 30-day expiration into a FileMaker product? There are a few ways of doing this. Here is an oldie but a goody:

1-Lock down the database so the user/customer can't edit scripts or fields.

2-Create a global date field called trial end date. Make sure it is empty before sending it to the user/customer.

2a-Create a global date field called days left. Make sure it is set to 31.

3-Create a script that runs when the solution is opened. The open script first checks to see if the trial end date is empty and the days left field is 31.

3a-If it is empty then set the trial end date global field to 30 days from today and set the days left global to the trial end date minus today.

3b-If it is not empty then set the days left global to the trial end date minus today.

3c-If the days left field is less than or equal to 0, show a 30-day trial has ended message and then close the database.

[Bill Fox]