Developer’s Guide

Creating custom layout themes 5-3
Basic requirements for a theme file
FileMaker Pro layout themes are described in an XML document
saved in text file format. Each text file must have the .fth filename
extension and reside in the Themes folder inside the
FileMaker Developer application folder so FileMaker Pro can
display the themes in the New Layout/Report assistant.
XML resembles HTML in many ways—however, unlike HTML the
XML for layout themes must be well-formed and comply with the
required syntax. Omitting a required element or attribute, or
mismatching start and end tags will result in an unusable document
and FileMaker Pro will be unable to parse the XML or display the
themes in the New Layout/Report assistant.
Minimum required XML elements for themes
Every theme file must begin with an XML-document processing
instruction that declares it as an XML document using the XML 1.0
specification. In addition, an XML document for a FileMaker Pro
layout theme must contain the <FMTHEMES> and
</FMTHEMES> start and end tags for the file. This FMTHEMES
root element can contain one or more FMTHEME element.
Minimum elements required for a theme file
Containing all of your themes (FMTHEME elements) in one file is
useful if you want to organize the way that themes appear in
FileMaker Pro. The order that FMTHEME elements are listed in the
file determines the order that the THEMENAME values will appear
in the New Layout/Report assistant.
Note Values for the THEMENAME element can contain any
characters from the ASCII character set. However, if you’re using an
XML editor to write your themes or if you plan to use the themes on
different platforms, certain measures must be taken.
XML editors expect these characters to be coded as character
entities:
Character Coded as
ampersand (&) &amp;
less than (<) &lt;
greater than (>) &gt;
apostrophe (‘) &apos;
quote (“) &quot;
Using the character instead of the character entity results in an error
from the XML editor. However, FileMaker Pro does not reinterpret
character entities—values in the THEMENAME element will
appear exactly as typed. You can avoid the problem by using a text
editor to create your themes or simply ignore the error from the XML
editor. Your theme names will appear as you write them in the New
Layout/Report assistant.
If you’re planning to use your themes on Windows and Mac OS
platforms, use the HINT attribute to ensure that upper-ASCII
characters (such as the accent mark) appear correctly on both
platforms. See
“Valid values for theme attributes” on page 5-7 for
more information.