Welcome to our community, full of great ideas on developing your FileMaker solutions effectively,
for peer-to-peer support of the FileMaker Platform and related products and services.
FileMaker offers many different options for charting, but if you need a chart that is not available in FileMaker, you should consider using Google Charts. Google Charts is a free Javascript framework that can be used in conjunction with web viewers in FileMaker to extend your charting capabilities: https://dbservices.com/articles/google-charts-in-filemaker/
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Hacking Your Own FileMaker Platform Solutions
Should FileMaker Platform developers mount hacking attacks on their own solutions? At first glance, this may seem an odd question. But I believe that the answer is “Yes, we should.”
Consider this. As developers we see our solutions from a totally different perspective than Threat Agents see them. Without practicing our own hacking skills, we can become blind to the vulnerabilities a Threat Agent can exploit to compromise the Confidentiality
The FileMaker Let function is your tool to make a calculation readable, well formatted and easy to debug. Let us discuss how it can be used.
The post Like a Boss: Let us Discuss the FileMaker Let Function appeared first on Geist Interactive.
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Part 2: What Should You Consider When Selecting a Development Partner? What Questions Might You Ask a Potential Developer?
Hiring a developer is about creating a working relationship. You want someone who gets your business and gets you. Having a good working relationship often determines the success or failure of a development project. Hire someone you are comfortable with who also has the skills necessary to make your project successful. Beyond the quality of the working relationsh
FileMaker Kanban is the latest tool that offers familiar functionality for users and flexibility for the developer. It offers great functionality and organizes your data visually into lanes and cards.
The post FileMaker Kanban: Organize Your Data appeared first on Geist Interactive.
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Claris has just announced the release of FileMaker Cloud Essentials, a simplified way for small businesses to create their own cloud-hosted Workplace Innovation Platform. Find out if this product is right for your small business: https://dbservices.com/articles/filemaker-cloud-essentials/
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Occasionally, you hit certain issues within FileMaker development where you're just stumped as to why you can't do something. Let's take a super simple example like being able to show and hide a button based on having selected a given portal row. How do you know when the user is within the portal? How do you know when they've left?
Think it's easy? Try to solve this issue without watching this video first. You'll quickly find out, that because of how FileMaker's "event model" works, known as sc
Occasionally, you hit certain issues within FileMaker development where you're just stumped as to why you can't do something. Let's take a super simple example like being able to show and hide a button based on having selected a given portal row. How do you know when the user is within the portal? How do you know when they've left?
Think it's easy? Try to solve this issue without watching this video first. You'll quickly find out, that because of how FileMaker's "event model" works, known as sc
Demo file: virtual-list-simplified.zip Note 1: The example in today’s article and demo file is intentionally very basic. Note 2: The demo is self-populating to keep the data current, so the values you see in the screen shots will not exactly match those you encounter in the demo. Recently I had the pleasure of discussing virtual… Continue reading Virtual List Simplified
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Demo file: virtual-list-simplified.zip Note 1: The example in today’s article/demo is intentionally very basic. Note 2: The demo is self-populating to keep the data current, so the values you see in the screen shots will not exactly match those you encounter in the demo. Recently I had the pleasure of discussing virtual list with Paul… Continue reading Virtual List Simplified
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Preventing duplicates from ever being entered in the first place is my personal preference. Sometimes we don't have a choice and have to remove them after the fact. But, if you can stop them from ever being entered, it's going to make your life much easier. In this article, we'll discuss a variety of techniques for stopping duplicates in their tracks including validation, script triggers and plain old vanilla scripting.
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Preventing duplicates from ever being entered in the first place is my personal preference. Sometimes we don't have a choice and have to remove them after the fact. But, if you can stop them from ever being entered, it's going to make your life much easier. In this article, we'll discuss a variety of techniques for stopping duplicates in their tracks including validation, script triggers and plain old vanilla scripting.
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When you need to display data which is dynamic by nature, it tends to boil down to who's viewing the data and how do they need it presented. There's typically more than one way to solve the same problem and knowing what your options are helps you make a good decision when it comes to displaying that data.
In this video, I showcase what I would consider are the top three methods of displaying dynamic data. Starting with the easiest method first, we talk about how to make things easier by using a
When you need to display data which is dynamic by nature, it tends to boil down to who's viewing the data and how do they need it presented. There's typically more than one way to solve the same problem and knowing what your options are helps you make a good decision when it comes to displaying that data.
In this video, I showcase what I would consider are the top three methods of displaying dynamic data. Starting with the easiest method first, we talk about how to make things easier by using a
Squarespace is an all-in-one website building and hosting provider that can help expand your business with a professional-looking website. Streamline the process of dynamically showing data from your FileMaker app on your Squarespace website using our integration tutorial and free demo file: https://dbservices.com/articles/filemaker-squarespace-integration/
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This year 2020 will be one of Change and Challenge for the Claris FileMaker Community. It will require Commitment, Confidence, and Community Effort to see it to a successful conclusion. Herewith, in outline form, are some of the Challenges I foresee we will face:
1. We will need to develop a finer level of audit logging of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Most logs currently focus on system level activity. A finer level of focus will assist in achiev
As with all software projects, one of the biggest prices you'll ever pay is the accumulated technical debt. It's a cost which starts as soon as you make the choice to simply write a new script with every new feature you add into your FileMaker solution.
Thus, the trick with creating something which is easier to manage is to simply decide to limit the number of things you create. So, what does one do when you've made that decision? Well, you focus on using the available toolset, using great orga
As with all software projects, one of the biggest prices you'll ever pay is the accumulated technical debt. It's a cost which starts as soon as you make the choice to simply write a new script with every new feature you add into your FileMaker solution.
Thus, the trick with creating something which is easier to manage is to simply decide to limit the number of things you create. So, what does one do when you've made that decision? Well, you focus on using the available toolset, using great orga
There are all kinds of methods for using indicators within FileMaker. We have multi-segment button bars, using the Hide calculation on any number of layout objects and, of course, there's simply using text alone to indicate something. In one of my more recent projects, I needed to group duplicates together.
While normally you'd want to rid your system of duplicates, this particular use case actually wanted them retained as an indication of importance or urgency. So, what was really needed was a
There are all kinds of methods for using indicators within FileMaker. We have multi-segment button bars, using the Hide calculation on any number of layout objects and, of course, there's simply using text alone to indicate something. In one of my more recent projects, I needed to group duplicates together.
While normally you'd want to rid your system of duplicates, this particular use case actually wanted them retained as an indication of importance or urgency. So, what was really needed was a
As 2019 draws to a close, I am mildly astonished to note that FileMaker Hacks is now nine years old. As promised in my recent conversation with Jeremy Brown, and in response to a number of reader requests, here, for the first time, is a comprehensive table of contents (as of December 2019). While some… Continue reading Table Of Contents for FileMaker Hacks
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As 2019 draws to a close, I am mildly astonished to note that FileMaker Hacks is now nine years old. As promised in my recent conversation with Jeremy Brown, and in response to a number of reader requests, here, for the first time, is a comprehensive table of contents. While some of these articles have… Continue reading Table Of Contents for FileMaker Hacks
View the full article
Importing data may be a very common task for some of your FileMaker workflows. Of course, not all data is going to come from the wonderful world of an online API. Some software just doesn't make its data available through the Internet.
So, what you often need to do is get hold of the import file and then create the script. But, what happens if your data for import is in some obscure location and may be hard for the user to find? Well, in that situation we want to work with as many known values
Importing data may be a very common task for some of your FileMaker workflows. Of course, not all data is going to come from the wonderful world of an online API. Some software just doesn't make its data available through the Internet.
So, what you often need to do is get hold of the import file and then create the script. But, what happens if your data for import is in some obscure location and may be hard for the user to find? Well, in that situation we want to work with as many known values
Integrating Twilio with FileMaker can give you the ability to easily send appointment reminders, sales discounts, and much more straight to your clients’ phones with just a few lines of code. Check out our article for a video tutorial and free sample file! https://dbservices.com/articles/filemaker-twilio-integration/
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Geist Interactive believes in education. That’s why we commit so many resources to teaching everything we know about building valuable applications and digital experiences with the FileMaker platform. And it’s also why we helped found and directly support One Spark Academy, a non profit learning center for middle school age kids in Thousand Oaks, CA. […]
The post One Spark 2019 – Education Matters appeared first on Geist Interactive.
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Database administrators have nightmares about duplicate data entry. There are tons of solutions out there. Which direction do you go? Do you try to prevent duplicate record entry with validation or scripting? Do you let the duplicates get entered and delete the periodically? And, what about merging two records? Maybe it's not a nightmare but at least it's an issue you have to address before allowing users to enter data. This article will discuss the ins and outs of the various methods for deleti
Database administrators have nightmares about duplicate data entry. There are tons of solutions out there. Which direction do you go? Do you try to prevent duplicate record entry with validation or scripting? Do you let the duplicates get entered and delete the periodically? And, what about merging two records? Maybe it's not a nightmare but at least it's an issue you have to address before allowing users to enter data. This article will discuss the ins and outs of the various methods for deleti
