During the recent FileMaker Developer Conference in San Francisco last month, quite a few attendees approached us asking whether a statement heard in one of the sessions was true or not. It seems one of the presenters from FMI suggested the idea that Excelisys' now famous drag-n-drop technique was not necessarily reliable and should be used with caution.

The statement was made in recognition of the fact that the technique, which allows you to create a once-impossible user interface feature, is based on what engineers call an "unexpected behavior" which could possibly change in future versions of FileMaker Pro. However, this behavior is NOT a bug, and is in fact considered a feature by many developers.

The behavior in question is the fact that an auto-enter calc will trigger before a script trigger is executed. Discovering this behavior was a surprise to many, including FMI engineers.

We wanted to set the record straight, so we spoke with FileMaker engineers. The word finally came down from them this week that there is almost no likelihood of this behavior changing anytime soon. Of course, FMI can't guarantee the low-level behavior will persist in future versions, nor would we expect them to. But we are confident that such a change is highly unlikely.

So relax and integrate this amazing technique into your solutions with confidence. The advice to use with caution is generally made when any technique is dependent on an unexpected behavior. But with a confirmation direct from the "horse's mouth", as it were, we consider this a green light.