Building scripted finds and compound requests

Expert

Use Enter Find Mode, Set Field, and Perform Find to script searches with multiple criteria, omit requests, and saved finds.

What you'll learn

How to build a multi-request compound find from a script
How to omit records using a second find request
How to handle a "no records found" result without an error dialog

Scripted finds give you full programmatic control over FileMaker's find mechanism. You can build compound requests (multiple criteria rows), omit records from results, and pass search values from script parameters — all without opening the Find Mode UI to the user.

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A basic scripted find

Enter Find Mode, set the criteria fields, then Perform Find. Wrap in error handling to catch error 401 (no records found).

FileMaker Script

Set Error Capture [ On ]
Enter Find Mode [ Pause: Off ]
Set Field [ Contacts::Status ; "Active" ]
Set Field [ Contacts::Region ; "West" ]
Perform Find [ ]
If [ Get ( LastError ) = 401 ]
  Show Custom Dialog [ "No active contacts in the West region." ]
  Go to Layout [ "Contacts" ]
End If

Freeze Window for visual and performance optimization Multi-window management from scripts