Getting out of fullscreen mode in FileMaker Pro

In version 2 of Acquittal, our criminal defense case management app, we're doing some nifty stuff with windows, and that means we're finding out that even in FileMaker Pro 15, we still don't have quite all the tools we'd like for managing windows.  One problem is how to trap for the possibility that the user has switched into fullscreen mode. The other problem is how to get out of it.

Is this window in fullscreen mode?

This one's not too hard. This calc formula seems to do the trick:

Get ( WindowHeight ) = Get ( ScreenHeight ) and
Get ( WindowWidth ) = Get ( ScreenWidth)


That will return true if the window is in fullscreen mode, false if it's not.

Why does this matter? Because there are certain things that you can't do with a window if it's in fullscreen mode. In Acquittal, for example, there are times when we want to generate a second "sidecar" window, then display the main and sidecar windows side-by-side. Can't do it if the main window is in fullscreen mode!

So how do I get out of fullscreen mode?

What we're missing in FileMaker 15 is a script step that will exit fullscreen mode. Well, ideally, we'd have a scriptstep like "Toggle Fullscreen Window Mode". But while we hope for this in FileMaker 16, there is a workaround. There is always a workaround, probably more than one. Here's what I've come up with. Note: I'm using a little custom function 'WindowIsFullScreen01' with the formula described above.

If [ WindowIsFullScreen01 ]

   # Looks like fullscreen!

   Set Variable [ $window1 ; Value: "ABCDE" ]
   Set Variable [ $window2 ; Value: Get ( WindowName )
   Set Window Title [ Current Window ; New Title: $window1 ]

   New Window [ Style: Document ; Name: $window2 ]
   Adjust Window [ Maximize ]

   Close Window [ Name: $window1 ; Current file ]
   Select Window [ Name: $window2 ; Current file ]

End If


It's pretty straightforward. Create a new window, which will be clone of the original window except that it won't be fullscreen. Play with the window names so the new window ends up with the original window's name and so that the Close Window script step can target the original window. Et voilà!

By the way, I changed the original window's name to "ABCDE" in this example. In reality, I'd probably use a long random number. I mean, odds of there being another window named "ABCDE" seem pretty small, but if it did happen, I'd be pretty darned embarrassed.

Let me know if you have something better.