Bulk operations design in FileMaker scripts

Expert

Design large-scale batch scripts that handle errors per-record, report progress, respect user cancellation, and finish with a summary report.

What you'll learn

How to build a progress indicator for long-running scripts
How to accumulate per-record errors and continue processing
How to implement a safe early-exit checkpoint
How to produce a post-run summary report
How to use a staging table for operations that must be reversible

A bulk operation -- updating prices, reassigning records, sending emails to a segment -- runs across hundreds or thousands of records. A poorly designed bulk script fails silently, leaves records in a half-updated state, and gives the user no feedback. A well-designed one processes records individually, accumulates errors without stopping, reports progress, and delivers a complete summary.

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Show live progress during a bulk operation

Update a progress field (or a global field on a visible layout) every N records to give the user real-time feedback. Updating every record is expensive; updating every 50 records is a good balance.

FileMaker Script

Set Variable [ $total ; Value: Get ( FoundCount ) ]
Set Variable [ $processed ; Value: 0 ]
Set Variable [ $errorCount ; Value: 0 ]

Go to Record/Request/Page [ First ]
Loop
  # Do the per-record work
  Set Field [ Products::Price ; Products::Price * $multiplier ]
  Commit Records/Requests [ No dialog: On ]

  Set Variable [ $err ; Value: Get ( LastError ) ]
  If [ $err != 0 ]
    Set Variable [ $errorCount ; Value: $errorCount + 1 ]
  End If

  Set Variable [ $processed ; Value: $processed + 1 ]

  # Update progress every 50 records
  If [ Mod ( $processed ; 50 ) = 0 ]
    Set Field [ Globals::ProgressMessage ;
      "Processing " & $processed & " of " & $total & " records..."
    ]
    Commit Records/Requests [ No dialog: On ]
    Refresh Window
  End If

  # Check for user abort
  If [ Get ( LastError ) = 1 ]
    Exit Loop
  End If

  Go to Record/Request/Page [ Next ; Exit after last ]
End Loop

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