Pop-up menus cannot be opened via script in FM for Mac

Issue report by Chris Cain

Product

FileMaker Pro

Version

14

Operating system version

Mac

Description of the issue

On windows, going to a field or object that is formatted as a pop-up menu causes the menu to open. On Mac it does not.

In many cases, this eliminates the pop-up as an option on anything cross-platform.

As just the latest example: I have a button-bar of navigation groups, each of which should show a list of targets to which the user can navigate. The list of available targets is dynamic, based on customizations, user privileges, and so on. On Windows, I could have the button open a popover with a popup menu (created dynamically) and the resulting navigation is elegant and snappy.

Because of this issue, I'm creating a file to display in a web viewer to replicate the same behavior. (I realize that I could use a virtual list, and create a new TO in every TOG, and so forth, but the goal of the exercise is to reduce redundancy and layout-by-layout editing for new navigation targets.)

Workaround

I asked a colleague who develops exclusively for Mac how he deals with this. He answered "I just don't use pop-up menus".

That appears to be the workaround here.