In FileMaker 2025, Claris introduced new features for capturing and recreating found sets of records: the GetRecordIDsAsFoundSet function and the Go To List of Records script step. For the original functionality, see my blog post Capturing and Recreating Found Sets in FileMaker Pro 2025.
FileMaker 2026 expands the function to retrieve related record IDs by allowing you to specify a table occurrence name or a portal name:
Original function: GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet ( type )
New function: GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet ( type ; tableOccurrenceName )
Companion script step (hasn’t changed): Go to List of Records [ List of record IDs, Show records using layout, Result options ]
What can the GetRecordIDsAsFoundSet function do?
As a simple example, the new functionality allows you to perform something like a more flexible Go to Related Records by using the function to gather related record IDs and then using the Go to List of Records script step to view them. However, the comparison isn’t precise:
- Limitation: You can only retrieve record IDs for a directly related table occurrence (i.e. child records but not grandchild records).
- Limitation: The function only retrieves records related to the current record, although you can loop through a found set of records to assemble related IDs for the entire set.
- Advantage: You can retrieve record IDs from a portal, respecting filtering and sorting applied to that portal. This is pretty cool!
If you’d like to step through the various possibilities, download my sample file below. It demonstrates the results from various scenarios (non-filtered portal, sorted portal, filtered portal, portal of the current found set, etc.)
Use Cases
Frankly, I’m having trouble thinking of any use cases where this is a game-changer, but that may be a failure of my imagination. Generally, you can get similar information via ExecuteSQL, which allows you to retrieve primary keys as well as Record IDs, and unless you have a volume of operations, the speed improvement might not be perceptible.
But if Record IDs are what you need, this function is very fast. I’d like it even more if it weren’t context-dependent, so that it could be used in a While function, for example. That could be a game-changer. Something like: GetRecordIDs ( type; recordID; contextTableOccurrenceName ; relatedTableOccurrenceName )
Perhaps it could be useful for taking a snapshot of related records at a moment in time so that they can be compared to changes that have taken place later. But my colleague Marcelo Pineyro cautions: “I would be leery of using internal FM IDs for this type of comparison. If a related record is deleted and then re-created, the FM IDs would be different, but the developer-defined keys would be the same.”
Please let me know what you’ve come up with!
Download the Demo
Navigating in New Opportunities in FileMaker 2026
If you’d like more insights on how new features and changes in FileMaker 2026 can benefit your FileMaker application, our FileMaker team can help. Contact us to get started.
